Metele attack: Army evacuates bodies of dead soldiers

The Army command in Maiduguri have evacuated bodies of soldiers
killed by Boko Haram insurgents on Sunday at Metele village in
Guzamala Local Government Area of North Borno State, The Nation
report.

A military source who spoke to the The Nation on condition of
anonymity disclosed that over seventy dead soldiers have been
evacuated to Maiduguri by the military after the Theatre Commander
Operation Lafiya Dole and the GOC, 7 Div on Friday went to Monguno
to strategised and recover bodies of the slain soldiers.

The source further said more than one hundred soldiers were
feared dead in the Metele attack.

The Nation also gathered that the first rescue and evacuation
team was foiled after Boko Haram launched an attack that forced
them in abandoning the mission.

“As of today, the bodies of some of the dead soldiers have been
evacuated and brought to Maiduguri. More than seventy dead bodies
have been brought. But I am sure many may not have been recovered.
I am not sure but the soldiers that died in that attack will be
more than one hundred” he said.

A soldier that escaped the attack and doesn’t want his name in
print said an advanced team of the insurgents came into the based
as friendly forces and went into the office of the commander where
they fired him and five other soldiers that were with him in the
office.

According to the source, the troops got confused after hearing
sound of gunshots from their commander’s office.

He said, “We saw some people dressed in full military uniform
came into our camp but we thought they were friendly forces. They
went straight to the office of our commander. Within a short time,
there were gunshots in the office. we got confused waiting for
orders but it was too late. Boko Haram had already surrendered
us.

They killed the commander with five other soldiers that were
with him in the office. Before we knew what was going on, there was
heavy gunfire from Boko Haram from all sides of the camp with more
fire at the entrance. One of our anti–bomb vehicle tried to charge
through the barbwire but got hook. It was a terrible fight oga,
(sic). We couldn’t do much because they had a large number and
their firepower was more superior than ours”.

The Nation gathered that Boko Haram had in September of this
year sacked six military formations from that axis with each of
them coming with a heavy casualties on the side of the Nigerian
troops.

It could be recalled that Nigerian troops in Metele suffered
similar attack in September this year where about 18 Nigeria
soldiers were killed while another over 151 soldiers and six
officers were declared missing in the same area in another
devastating attack on 157 Battalion on October 8, 2018.

The official figure released by the military over the attack
were seven soldiers killed and sixteen injured. They claimed to
have killed at least 76 Boko Haram fighters in Metele as at
then.

Effort by our repporter to get Army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Chukwu
Texas to this report were unsuccessful as as calls and text
messages to his known contact where not answered to.

Related

Ani-Oforifori: Nigerian Navy Concludes ‘Chase Thief’
Exercise

Military worldwide carry out exercises for different reasons.
While some do so for contemporary security challenges, others
engage in exercises for operational and training purposes. The need
for training and retraining has become expedient to navies of the
world because of the dynamics of security issues. Africa being part
of the world has had its own share of these security challenges.
Some of these threats include; sea piracy, hostage taking, illegal
bunkering, illegal fishing among others.

Nigeria as one of the maritime nations had its share of these
security challenges which include piracy, kidnapping, illegal
bunkering and others. This therefore necessitated the Eastern Naval
Command to carry out EXERCISE ANI-OFORIFORI, meaning ‘Chase Thief’
in Kalabari Language.

According to the Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Naval Command,
Rear Admiral David Adeniran, the conduct of the Exercise was in
furtherance to Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) Vice Admiral
Ibok-Ette Ibas mission to develop a naval force that is well
trained, organised and highly motivated to discharge its
constitutional roles professionally and efficiently for the defence
of Nigeria in ensuring her economic prosperity.

The Exercise objective was to assess the operational readiness
of ships, gunboats, helicopters and other platforms of the Eastern
Fleet in order to practice skills of personnel in tackling maritime
threats within the Command’s Area of responsibility.

EXERCISE ANI-OFORIFORI gave the Command the opportunity to
ascertain the operational readiness of the Eastern Fleet. The
Exercise was born out of an earlier simulation conducted at the
Simulation Center of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College
Jaji, Kaduna State. The simulation training exercise at the Center
covers Fleet Maneuvers, Steering Gear Failure/Breakdown, Machinery
Breakdown, Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS) among others. To
replicate real time situation, the Eastern Naval Command Set to
Sea.

The conduct of EXERCISE ANI-OFORIFORI was carried out in 4
phases; phase one was the preparatory phase which involved training
in various aspects of Seamanship as well as Logistics provision for
participating ships. Phase 2 was the movement phase to designated
Exercise area which dove tail into conduct of the Exercise. The
final stage was the termination stage which ended with entry of all
participating ships into harbour, followed by wash-up and
debrief.

The Exercise gave the Command the opportunity to practice man
overboard, semaphore/flashing, Gunnery, Interrogation of vessels,
Abandoned ship, Boat Operation among others. During boat Exercise,
life buoys were deployed for rescue of simulated Man Overboard
while NNS CENTINARY and NNS BURUTU were contacted for lookout.
Finally, the entire scenario was professionally handled – leaving
Ship Company with great lesson. Another training conducted was in
the area of Abandoned Ship where life raft was deployed for Ship
Company. To many onboard, it was the first time of witnessing the
content of life raft. The balloon-like object contained some
medications/safety materials onboard. Interestingly, the ship
recovered it for teaching aid to personnel.

The importance of communication was exhibited onboard as various
ships while in formations communicated through Semaphore – use of
flags for communication onboard. According to the Command
Operations Officer, Commodore AO Bamidele, Semaphores were the
earliest form of communication adopted by ships. He however
stressed that where all forms of communication failed onboard, the
last option is to adopt semaphore; he further stated that sign and
symbol form of communication is safer because it is secured among
ships. Therefore practicing it will give personnel opportunity to
be abreast with it.

In the area of gunnery exercise, participating ships conducted
series of gunnery by engaging identified targets at sea. Various
calibre of weapons onboard were test fired by ship company. The
exercise reinforces marksmanship skills of personnel. In a related
development, during the Exercise, ships patrolled the entire
Eastern flank of Nigeria’s maritime environment and in the process
interrogated several vessels in the area. Some of the oil fields
and terminals in the area include; Yoho oil terminal, Ima oil
terminal, Okono oil terminal, Oso Gas field, Usari oil field,
Terminal Ebok and Antan. Others are, Qua Iboe terminal, Kwa Ibo and
a host of others.

The Eastern Naval Command sea EXERCISE ANI-OFORIFORI 2018 was
concluded with a debrief onboard Nigerian Navy Ship OKPABANA. Some
of the security/law enforcement maritime agencies that participated
in the exercise include representatives of the Nigerian Air Force,
Nigeria Police, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Nigerian
Security and Civil Defence Corp, Nigerian Customs, Nigerian
Immigration and Nigeria Maritime and Administration and Safety
Agency.

It should be noted that, the Exercise was also conducted
simultaneously by Operations units under the Eastern Naval Command
in pursuant to same objective to rid the creeks of all forms of
criminality. These units include Nigerian Navy ship JUBILLEE,
Nigerian Navy Ship PATHFINDER And Nigerian Navy Ship VICTORY as
well as Forward Operations bases BONNY in Rivers and IBAKA in Akwa
Ibom States respectively.

Commander Thomas Otuji
Information Officer
Eastern Naval Command