The Nigerian Defense Headquarters has confirmed that it was suspecting sabotage in the Wednesday clash between troops belonging to Nigerian military and gunmen, suspected to be cell groups of Boko Haram at Mubi Town, in the troubled Adamawa State, North Eastern Nigeria.
It was also gathered that the gang that attacked Mubi Town was a rag-tag band of soldiers. “They are some criminal rings, sponsored political thugs that have been sponsored to frustrate the ceasefire arrangement and effort to end restiveness in the North East. It is not Boko Haram that confronted our troops, I can tell you that and we are sure of it.”
Army spokesman, Major General Chris Olukolade, said Nigerian troops did not flee the battlefront in Mubi, Adamawa State. “I think something went wrong and the Defense Headquarters is looking at it.”
But a competent source told our Correspondent that in a telephone interview that already some 76 soldiers among the special operation battalion in Mubi, have been arrested and detained.
It was also gathered that the Defense Headquarters is suspecting that what happened in Mubi was the handiwork of some left-behind-moles in the troops fighting the insurgents in the North Eastern part of the country.
“We must have underrated our intelligence when they told us that we still have sponsored moles in our midst. We thought we have been able to arrest the situation but, with what happened in Mubi, we have not gone near it at all.”
Reports had it that an entire battalion of soldiers had allegedly fled the town of Mubi in Adamawa State earlier Wednesday in response to an attack by “insignificant” Boko Haram militants, but that “an investigation is going on to establish why,” a source told our Correspondent.
The source also said that some 155 artillery weapons in Mubi, have now been abandoned by fleeing troops.
A senior military source said there was no reason to believe that the Special Operation Battalion troops stationed in Mubi should have fled from the militants or in response to their threats because the army had decided to use the headquarters in Mubi to launch an attack to retake several towns from Boko Haram in the coming days. To that effect, five artillery tanks had been brought into Mubi in the last few days, the source said.
The officer disclosed that efforts are being made to send in fresh troops to replace the fleeing ones and push out any militants that might have entered Mubi.
Some of the soldiers who spoke to our Correspondent on telephone from Yola, Mubi and Jalingo in Taraba State, said their base had fallen to the militants but the senior officer said he could not confirm if the militants reached the base as the troops had all fled. The source said air patrols were taking place around the area.
