Military moves to liberate Bama

Nigerian Soldiers

The Nigerian Army has launched a major operation to liberate the strategic town of Bama, Borno State from Boko Haram insurgents.

Investigation revealed on Tuesday that deployment of ground forces and equipment was preceded by days of targeted aerial operations in Bama and its environs.

An intelligence source, who made this known, said that the military was expecting a productive result from Bama which was captured by the insurgents in September last year.

He said, “The battle for Bama has started; troops have started going in.You know that the Air Force was deployed last week to carry out targeted bombardment of the town.

“Bama promises to be a tough one because those people have fortified the place; they planted mines around the town but our soldiers are in high spirits.

“By the Grace of God, we are expecting results tomorrow. The aerial bombardment started at the weekend and now the ground troops are moving in…”

Bama and Gwoza are believed to be the two surviving operational bases of the Boko Haram in the country since the commencement of the latest military offensive against the sect.

Our correspondent could not get the Director, Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, to speak on the operation as the calls to his mobile did not connect.

But late on Tuesday, another military source claimed that they had liberated the town.

He added that the development led to jubilation in the Maimalari Barracks, the headquarters of the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri.

The source, who also said that the General Officer Commanding   the   division, Lamidi Adeosun, led the operation.   attributed it to the renewed motivation given the troops.

He said, “We are happy that our Commander-in-Chief(President Good-luck Jonathan) has been able to upgrade us and as we speak, we have the right equipment to end the war in the next one week.

“The GOC is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that we meet the deadline for elections.

“The general did not even use our crack boys in Konduga. He just took his team from our supply of new boys here and drove straight into Bama on Monday, leaving the Konduga guys to rest   till we took over Bama, chased the bad people out, removed their flag and installed our authority.”