Metele Killings: Why Nigerian Army didn’t release number of casualties – Presidency
FREEPRESS – The presidency has said the Nigerian Army didn’t declare the number of casualties during the attack by Boko Haram on its base in line with global practice.
The presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, disclosed this in an interview with Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
“All over the world, the military does not or rarely disclose the figure of its casualties,” said Adesina.
Although, reports in the country have revealed the terrorists on Sunday overran a Nigerian Army battalion, 157 Task Force Battalion, in Metele, Borno state to kill at least 44 soldiers.
However, an officer among the troop attacked at Metele told a foreign News platform, Reuters, that “the insurgents took us unawares. We lost about 100 soldiers. It is a huge loss.”
“They killed some of us who went to evacuate the bodies of the killed soldiers,” said the officer who requested anonymity.
A statement by the Army five days after the brutal attack, however, said the reported casualty figures were untrue, although it did not provide details on the attack.
President Muhammadu Buhari commented on the attack on Saturday, vowing to ensure the end of the insurgency and as well as care for the soldiers deployed in the volatile North-East.
The attack is among the highest since Buhari came to power in 2015 and it increases the pressure on him ahead of the election in February 2019, not least because he has claimed victory over the nine-year insurgency.
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