By Tony Iyare
How can we arrest the almost daily hemorrhage of our soldiers who have become mincemeat for terrorists? From Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger and now Abuja, the lives of our soldiers are being cut short in several numbers by terrorists virtually unchallenged.
The killing of these young officers, Captain Attah S. Samuel and Lieutenant Ibrahim Suleiman and six other soldiers with three injured in Abuja at the weekend is really distressing.
Captain Attah, who is from Ibaji Local Government Area of the Kogi State and Lieutenant Ibrahim Suleiman, son of Col Suleiman Ahmodu Babanawa (rtd), from Okpo in Olamaboro Local Government Area of Kogi State were among the Guards Brigade troops killed in the ambush while returning from Nigerian Law School, Bwari, Abuja.
Drawn from the 7 Guards Battalion of the Nigerian Army Presidential Guards Brigade, they had responded to a distress call from the school authority after receiving a letter from the terrorists that the school would be attacked.
I’m at a loss why the team would just go on a visit to the school and leave immediately instead of setting up surveillance and properly man the entire area?
This looks like the replay of what happened before the terrorists over ran the Kuje Prisons. Today, 150 Boko Haram terrorists are at large.
It’s intriguing the National Security Adviser, Gen Babagana Monguno (rtd) and other defence chiefs are still keeping their jobs when it’s clear they’ve ran out of ideas on how to confront the terrorists who are daily gaining grounds. Worse is that they get intelligence reports on the impending attacks and still do nothing.
Perhaps the most scandalous is the claim of the Deputy Speaker House of Representatives, Ahmed Idris Wase, that the Department of State Services (DSS) presented 44 security reports before the Kuje Prison attack in Abuja.
Now the terrorists are on prowl in Abuja, radiating their audacity and threatening to hit at anyone including President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor of Kaduan State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai and other officials.
Just days before Sallah, they hit the advance team of the President in Katsina injuring some security aides. They also attacked Kuje Prisons, located some 45 kilometers from the Presidential Villa for three hours unchallenged releasing many prisoners including Boko Haram members.
Now they seem to be hitting the elite presidential guards like flies sending the signal that they are really serious about getting the big prize. God helps us!
Tony Iyare, a journalists and public affairs commentators wrote from Benin
