Nigeria: Military Arrests Soldiers for Being 'Moles' for Boko Haram

Photo: Obinna Anyadike/IRIN

 Abuja — Military authorities prosecuting the war against terrorism in the North East states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe have arrested several soldiers, who were discovered to have leaked vital security information on the troops' strategies and tactics to Boko Haram that led to a series of ambush and killing of over 30 Nigerian soldiers in recent times.
Most of the arrested soldiers serve as orderlies or aide-de-camps, ADCs to Commanders of Troops on the field.


It was gathered that the alleged moles among the soldiers leaked the information on the deployment of soldiers from Maimalari Barracks in April this year to the terrorists which led to an ambush and killing of so many soldiers of the 101 Battalion that consequently led to soldiers' mutiny and the shooting at the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division, Major General Ahmed Mohammed. His armoured official car saved his life.
Vanguard further gathered that the activities of these moles may have been responsible for the recent shooting of the Nigerian Airforce Alpha Jet on September 12 which took off from Yola airport and was reported missing until Boko Haram terrorists said they shot it down and killed one of its pilot, which was confirmed by the Facebook account of friends of the military.
Speaking under condition of anonymity, a reliable source said Commanders on the field had for long wondered how information on strategies for deployment, type of weaponry and fall back tactics easily filtered out to the terrorists to the extent that soldiers' movement, timing of deployment, and routes to take, became known to Boko Haram insurgents.
"The situation became so bad that there was mutual suspicion among fellow commanders, the Brigade headquarters and even the Division headquarters. But at last, the moles were found out to be some of the orderlies and aides of Commanders. What they do is that after operational briefings and troops take off, these moles immediately pass on the information through calls."
Asked why it was difficult to discover the traitors before now, the source said, "Who will suspect that an orderly or the ADC of a Commander will be the one giving out information. He does everything for the Commander and he is with him all the time. He is the last person that would be suspected. But thank God, they have been exposed; the truth is now known".
Already, the source noted that a Board of Inquiry (BOI) has been set up to carry out further investigations into the activities of the traitors and to try to find out if there were fellow fifth columnists still existing among the troops, after which a General Court Martial will be constituted to try the soldiers for Criminal Conspiracy among others.
Also, Vanguard was told at the weekend that six officers taking part in the offensive to flush out the terrorists from the Adamawa axis recently shot themselves in parts of their bodies that were not life threatening with a view to escape being drafted to the battle field to confront Boko Haram terrorists.
After allegedly shooting themselves in the arm, hip, foot and making sure that the bullets did not affect any bones in these parts of their bodies, the officers ran to a military hospital and claimed that they were shot by terrorists.
Medical experts attached to the hospital in Vintim, after carrying out several checks and x-rays on the gunshot wounds, discovered that the officers had 'clean gunshot wounds' which meant the injuries were 99% self inflicted.
Vanguard gathered that the Army High Command ordered that further medical tests be carried out to be doubly sure and that the x-rays were sent to Abuja where experts did further analysis and came out with the same results of 'Clean Gunshot Wounds' .
"In one instance, an officer expertly shot at his arm from the front and the bullet came out from the back without touching any bone neither did it destroy any artery that would endanger the treatment of the hand. In another instance, an officer just opened fire on his foot but made sure no toe or dangerous part of the foot was affected," a source said.