Army Chief Relocates to Borno State in order to Tackle Boko Haram

The COAS’s presence in Maiduguri, was said to have been responsible for the successes recorded by the military over the weekend. He was there to shore up the morale of the soldiers who seemed to have been losing ground in the past few weeks.

Daily Sun learnt that the Army chief had temporarily relocated to Maiduguri, even before members of the National Assembly asked him to do so.

Our source revealed that before relocating to Maiduguri, Minimah had visited the town together with the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, to assess the situation on ground and why the insurgents seemed to be having the upper hand against the soldiers in the fight against terror.


The Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, had during the night before meeting with the President over the incessant attacks, visited the COAS at his quarters at the Niger Barracks, to brief him on the true situation of things in his state.

During the visit, Shettima was said to have told Minimah some of the atrocities going on in the military operations and suggested some measures to end the crisis.

And so the statement by the governor during an interview with State House correspondents that Boko Haram was more equipped than the military did not come to the COAS as a surprise.

But that notwithstanding, the Army chief was said to have taken most of the governor’s complaints and observation seriously and found them to be true to a large extent during his visit to Maiduguri, thus prompting him to make some immediate changes.
The military, in assessing its operation and evaluating how to do things differently, had found that most of the soldiers killed by the terrorists had gunshot injuries on their backs meaning they were shot while trying to escape the fire power of the terrorists.

A military source who confided in Daily Sun, said no infantry officer can die in that manner because they know the rule of fire and movement in battle which is one of the basic infantry tactics and they also know that it is not the volume of fire that matters, but the effectiveness of the firing and it is only the infantry soldier that has that tenacity.
The source assured that the Army has started withdrawing all its infantry personnel posted to training institutions, units and commands across the country to battle the insurgents. To this end, most of the soldiers who have stayed too long in the North-East on commencement of the emergency rule have also been posted out to give room for fresh soldiers to take over.

Another dilemma is corruption where monies meant for the payment of troops’ allowance were diverted by some finance officers and commandants who stay in the comfort of their office.

Similarly, most of the 5,000 vehicles sent to the area reportedly stolen by the terrorists have been found to be untrue and some officers were said to have hijacked the vehicles and converted them to their use and even sold some.

The development is being investigated by the Army which has vowed to court-martial anyone found wanting