3 weeks ago
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A erstwhile Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor (retd.), has revealed that nary less than 2,700 officers and soldiers were killed implicit 12 years successful the conflict against Boko Haram.
He besides denied the insinuation that officers and soldiers of a peculiar religion were mostly deployed to battlegrounds and were, therefore, disproportionately killed during the galore fights against the members of the dreaded group.
Irabor made these revelations successful his caller book, “SCARS: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum,” which was presented to the nationalist a fewer days ago.
LEADERSHIP Sunday reports that the retired wide played captious nationalist and planetary subject involution roles, including peacekeeping efforts successful Liberia and Sierra Leone with the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), the United Nations Mission successful Sierra Leone, and the United Nations Mission successful Liberia.
Irabor said his publication attempts to chronicle “the divers interaction of Boko Haram connected the Nigerian State” and that “it is simply a catalogue of facts connected Boko Haram, gleaned from my first-hand acquisition during my subject bid of the North-East Region of Nigeria.”
The erstwhile defence main said 1 of the astir striking measures of the outgo of warfare is the quality toll. According to him, “The quality outgo of the Boko Haram situation is immense and tin beryllium equated to a pandemic.”
Available information bespeak that precise precocious figures of deaths person been recorded since 2009 arsenic a effect of the nonstop interaction of unit from Boko Haram and different violent groups.
In the military, nary less than 2,700 officers and soldiers paid the ultimate terms successful the defence of Nigeria betwixt 2009 and 2021.
Irabor quoted a UNDP study which stated that arsenic of 2020, the struggle whitethorn person resulted successful astir 350,000 deaths, with astir 314,000 of those from indirect causes.
He denied the assertion successful immoderate quarters that lone subject unit from definite taste groups oregon spiritual faiths were sent to the North-East to face terrorists. As such, much unit from specified groups and religions were said to person been mislaid successful the war.
“This is not true,” helium said, adding that, “a sojourn to subject cemeteries shows that astir an adjacent fig of casualties tin beryllium seen from the marked graves.”
Given the quality successful burial procedures, determination are 2 divisions successful a subject cemetery: 1 for Christians and the different for Muslims. Therefore, suggesting that either Muslims oregon immoderate radical from definite taste groups are not progressive successful the warfare effort, nor person suffered casualties, is blatantly false.
Irabor, therefore, declared that the deaths that resulted from the activities of Boko Haram stay an eternal scar, which helium said should beryllium a nationalist acquisition for gathering a virile nationhood.
Irabor alleged that immoderate reports by individuals and non-governmental organisations affected the morale of officers and besides misled the United States of America into sanctioning immoderate officers solely due to the fact that they held captious appointments during the war.
He said that portion it whitethorn not person been the volition of US authorities to undermine the operational objectives of the warfare efforts, the result was profoundly devastating and could hardly person been rationalised.
Interestingly, helium said, the affected officers were not recovered to person committed immoderate known offence. He cited the cases of Major General L.P. Ngubane and Brigadier General R.O. Bamigboye arsenic examples.
The wide recalled that during the aboriginal days of Boko Haram, Amnesty International reported that troops of the Nigerian Army committed wide killings of civilians during operations.
Irabor stated that General Ngubane was the main grooming and operations serviceman astatine Defence Headquarters during the aboriginal days of operations against Boko Haram successful the North-East, adding that adjacent though the Federal Government’s committee study pointed retired that nary specified happening happened and that determination was nary wide sedate arsenic reported by Amnesty International, the US ignored specified a report.
He said, “At the time, Major General LP Ngubane had taken his wife, who was being treated for cancer, to the USA connected aesculapian evacuation. The elder serviceman had to instrumentality to Nigeria to code personal, administrative, and logistics issues related to his wife’s treatment. Painfully, helium could not instrumentality to the USA to articulation successful giving attraction and enactment to his sick woman due to the fact that the US authorities refused to renew his visa until her death.”
On Brigadier General Bamigboye, who was the commandant of the 21 Armoured Brigade successful Maiduguri, helium said the officer’s household had been surviving successful the USA, wherever his woman worked and raised their children.
“He was arsenic denied a visa to question to sojourn his family, adjacent aft retiring from the Nigerian Army to date,” General Ir...
English (US) ·