Army Probes Killing Of Guards Brigade Soldiers, Beefs Up Security In FCT

The Army Headquarters in Abuja have set up a Board of Inquiry (BoI) to investigate the killing of two officers and soldiers from Guards Brigade by suspected terrorists.

The soldiers were killed while on an internal security operations in Bwari Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory.

The board set up on Tuesday is expected to submit its report any moment from now.

This is coming just as ur correspondent gathered that one of the officers and soldiers have been buried after due consultations and meeting with their bereaved families.

The killing of the soldiers is being perceived as the handiwork of insiders as many are of the opinion that with the magnitude of the information at their disposal, the Nigerian Air Force would have first embarked on an aerial surveillance before the attack by ground troops. As a result, many are questioning if the synergy between the services is really working.

Five of the injured soldiers are on admission in one of the Nigerian Army hospital while another who is critically injured has been transferred to a government hospital for proper medical attention.

A top security source told our correspondent that “what happened was that the soldiers got an information that the terrorists were occupying some parts of the forests having built several camps. So, the soldiers actually took the fight to their domain but they were overpowered because of the high calibre weapons of the terrorists.

“Ordinarily, I think the NAF, would have first carried out a surveillance mission to know the exact position of these terrorists before asking the ground troops to move but that was never done and now we have lost some of our finest and young officers and soldiers in the process.

Meanwhile security has been beefed up in most of the satellite towns targeted by the terrorists to attack.

Investigation by Daily Sun showed that the army has redeployed some of its security outfits in other states to the FCT to beef up its operations.

A drive round some of the areas showed the presence of soldiers from OPERATION WHILSTOKE among the soldiers deployed to join their counterparts in the FCT.

A military source said the Army has also deployed plain clothes operatives to the perceived hotspots in the FCT to arrest some of these terrorists and criminals disturbing the peace of the city ahead of the 2023 general elections in the country.

Director Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu did not pick his call.