Nigerian soldiers shoot at commanding officer after being ordered into Boko Haram ambush

Nigerian soldiers fired on their own commander yesterday after they were ordered into a Boko Haram ambush that killed a dozen of their comrades.

The soldiers had been conducting operations around Chibok, the town where Islamist militants snatched nearly 300 schoolgirls last month, when they came under attack.

Soldiers said the troops fired at a senior officer who came to pay respects to the killed soldiers, whose bodies were brought to a barracks in Maiduguri, the capital of north-eastern Borno state.


Observers called the shooting another sign of demoralisation in the military that is in charge of the search for the abducted schoolgirls.

Sources said the dead soldiers and the survivors were ambushed while on a special operation in Kalabalge Local Government Area where locals had on Tuesday morning killed about 150 insurgents and arrested 10 others.

After the operation, during which some military equipment were recovered from the insurgents, the soldiers who had arrived the council, were asked to return to Maiduguri.

The soldiers reportedly pleaded with their superiors to pass the night and return to Maiduguri the next morning, as the night trip would be too risky.

Their request was allegedly turned down and the troop had to drive in the night back to Maiduguri.

But half way through their journey, they ran into a Boko Haram ambush and 12 of them got killed while some others were injured, sources said.

This development angered the soldiers who felt their superiors, including the GOC, had deliberately allowed them drive at night to be slaughtered by the Boko Haram.

“Those commanding the troop declined their request to pass the night in one of the villages on the grounds that the top ranks at the headquarters of the 7 Division would not be pleased if they don’t go back to Maiduguri that night,” said a ranking soldier, who insisted not being quoted in this report.

The officer added that “when the corpses of the slain soldiers were brought to Maimalari barracks in the morning, the GOC had to go there to address the troops. As soon as they spotted the vehicle of the GOC driving into the barracks, some of the vexed soldiers suddenly started shooting at the approaching vehicle; it took an extra effort by the GOC’s driver to retreat back and luckily helped the GOC survive by the whiskers.”