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Nigerian Soldiers Successfully Repel Suspected Boko Haram Ambush In Kogi State
Sep 16 2014 at 10:20am
About 850 soldiers shortlisted for a counter-terrorism
course at the Nigerian Army Training Centre in Kontagora,
Niger State narrowly escaped death when they were
ambushed by suspected members of the outlawed Boko
Haram islamist sect.
Four of them were however seriously injured in the
incident which took place at a location between Okene
and Lokoja, Kogi State on Sunday night.
A security source said on Monday that the soldiers were
men of the 322 Artillery Battalion, and the Fourth Brigade
Garrison, Ekeunwa, Benin in Edo State.
The PUNCH learnt that the 850 soldiers were expected to
give fillip to the ongoing counter-terrorism operation in
Borno and Adamawa states on completion of the counter-
insurgency course.
Our source said there were suspicions that the attackers
were insurgents because of the intensity of the gunfire
directed at the vans conveying the soldiers from both
sides of the road.
He added that the soldiers, who shot their way through
the ambush, passed the night at the Nigeria Army
formation in Lokoja.
The four injured soldiers, according to him, were taken to
a military facility in Lokoja while the commanders of the
troops addressed the others on Monday morning.
The source said, “There was an attack on soldiers along
the Okene-Lokoja Road on Sunday night. Four of the
soldiers were seriously wounded in the attack though all
of them are still alive and are receiving treatment at
Lokoja.
“The soldiers were on their way for a course at
Kontagora, where they are expected to be deployed in
the North-East for the war against the insurgents.
“The soldiers were pulled out from two military
formations in Benin–the 322 Artillery Battalion and the
Fourth Brigade Garrison in Ekeunwan, Benin.
“It was not long that the soldiers returned from a
peacekeeping operation in Sudan; they were members of
the NIBBATT 41 that returned to the country about two
months ago.
“The soldiers were taken unawares as the attackers
operated from both sides of the road and got four of the
soldiers seriously wounded.
“However, they returned the fire and passed through to
Lokoja where they were addressed the following
morning. I believe as I talk to you that they must have left
for Kotangora to participate in the planned course.”
The source said that there were feelings that somebody
might have given out information on the movement of
the troops from Benin to Kontagora.
Efforts to get the comment of the Director of Defence
Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, on the latest
ambush were futile as the calls to his mobile telephone
indicated that it was switched off.
It will be recalled that about 190 Nigerian troops were
ambushed by militants a few kilometres from Okene on
January 19, 2013.
The militants were said to have cut through the convoy of
Mali-bound Nigerian Army peacekeepers travelling in
three luxury buses via Kaduna to Bamako, Mali.
They first hit the convoy with Improvised Explosive
Devices planted on the highway before firing on the
troops afterwards. Two soldiers were killed and several
others injured during the attack.
A few days after the incident, a group, Jama’atu Ansarul
Muslimina Fi Biladis-Sudan, claimed that it carried out the
attack. The group is a break-away faction of Boko Haram.
