Maiduguri attacks: Military suspects insider collaboration
The military authorities have commenced investigations into the attacks on the Nigerian Air Force Base and other military formations by the Boko Haram insurgents in the early hours on Monday .

A security source disclosed this to our correspondent in Abuja on Tuesday, just as the Nigerian Air Force deployed more fighter jets in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

The military leadership and investigators are working on the suspicion that the daring attacks carried may have been facilitated by insider’s in collusion with the insurgents.

Investigations revealed that the leadership of the military was deeply concerned with the realisation that the incident took place at a time the Special Forces were planning one of the biggest offensives against the insurgents.

The security source, who confided in our correspondent, said that the motive of the attack was to weaken the operation or make it impossible.

The military authorities were said to have doubts that the timing of the attack could just be a coincidence.

It was further gathered that the Air Force Base and other targets of the Monday morning attacks were too strategic and fortified for insurgents to attack without information.

The military leadership, it was learnt, was further shocked by the discovery that the suspected terrorists planted Improvised Explosive Devices around the Air Force base and the 333 Artillery Regiment with the intent to ambush troops from carrying out rescue operations.

The source said that suspicion about insiders’ collaboration was further deepened by the puzzle over how the insurgents successfully planted the IEDs, which they exploded without being caught.

The military high command on Tuesday dispatched a high powered team of military strategists led by the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, to ascertain the extent of the attack on the Nigerian Air Force base and other security formations and to report back to Abuja.

The team has not returned to Abuja as of the time of filing this report.

The source said, “We are believing strongly that this incident was made possible by insiders’ collaboration in terms of giving them information.

“You know, that place is very strategic. Another thing is that some final operations were being planned, which would have dealt a devastating blow on them and weakened them seriously.

“We believe that the aim was to distract and slow down that mission.

“The issue is: How did they get to the place to plant the IEDs, which they planted with the aim of preventing intervention and to ambush troops that tried to intervene.

“From the realm of information, there is a lot of what insiders could have done. It appears to be a well planned attack.”

Meanwhile, the authorities of the Nigerian Air Force on Tuesday deployed more fighter jets in Maiduguri to intensify the pursuit of the fleeing insurgents.

A security source who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the issue, said that the Special Forces spotted and killed some of the insurgents between Benisheik and Maiduguri.

The source said that the military had not collated the number of people killed as the operation involved mainly air strikes.

It was further learnt that the Boko Haram attack affected two helicopters with transparent floor considered critical to the surveillance activities of the Special Forces, especially along the long Maiduguri-Potiskum-Damaturu-Bauchi Road.

The attack also affected three unserviceable MIG fighter jets that were awaiting evacuation to the archives.

Calls to the telephone line of the Director of Defence Information, Brig. Gen Chris Olukolade, did not connect.

But the Director of Air Force Information, Air Commodore Yusuf Anas, told our correspondents on the telephone that the Air Force had replaced the damaged helicopters with a new helicopter and an MI35 fighter jet on Tuesday.

He added that an additional helicopter would be deployed by Friday.

Source:http://www.punchng.com/news/maiduguri-attacks-military-suspects-insider-collaboration/

@Highlighted, i weep for my country's journalism state..since when did an MI 35 become a fighter jet

Oh God our creator, direct our noble course.... bla bla bla

u pple whr planin' to gv dem a deverstatn blow,bt de hit u guys first.So,who is d insider,us or u pple?u pple beta wake up frm ur drms nd fight these blood suckn zombies.

this region called north should get it into their thin skull, that they have lost power in the entity called one nigeria forever and ever in Jesus' Name. Amen.

stevnwigw1: this region called north should get it into their thin skull, that they have lost power in the entity called one nigeria forever and ever in Jesus' Name. Amen.

Please quit that old worn out propaganda of "the northerners are using boko haram to fight an ijaw/igbo president". I know that is your campaign strategy for 2015, but if you are old enough, you will know that all previous governments from Martala till now have had to deal with insurgents one way or the other. While the military governments were able to deal decisively with them, successive civilian governments failed until it became an uncontrollable monster.

Wars are won not necessarily based only on superior fire power but also based on superior intelligence. What this article is implying is that the Boko guys have superior intelligence. Then what is the function of directorate of military intelligence? They should be very active along Nigeria borders, especially the north gathering information to prevent these kinds of attacks. What about the surveillance capability of our airforce? a functional airforce should run surveillance sorties along the borders at least twice a day.

We pride ourselves in being a military force in Africa and a rag tag militia is giving our whole military nightmares, in an open dessert for that matter. Shame

wirinet:

Please quit that old worn out propaganda of "the northerners are using boko haram to fight an ijaw/igbo president". I know that is your campaign strategy for 2015, but if you are old enough, you will know that all previous governments from Martala till now have had to deal with insurgents one way or the other. While the military governments were able to deal decisively with them, successive civilian governments failed until it became an uncontrollable monster.

Wars are won not necessarily based only on superior fire power but also based on superior intelligence. What this article is implying is that the Boko guys have superior intelligence. Then what is the function of directorate of military intelligence? They should be very active along Nigeria borders, especially the north gathering information to prevent these kinds of attacks. What about the surveillance capability of our airforce? a functional airforce should run surveillance sorties along the borders at least twice a day.

We pride ourselves in being a military force in Africa and a rag tag militia is giving our whole military nightmares, in an open dessert for that matter. Shame

No be small something o!
Nothing looses a war faster than incompetence.
Unfortunately, incompetence is the story of this present government.
Any time this issue is raised, the idiots hides under the banner that the present rot was not created by the present government, they inherited it. Obama inherited a government plagued and weigh down by worldwide recession, he had excuses to put the blame of the financial woes on bush but he never did.
Presently through his effort and that of his team, US is in a better financial state now.

Nigga journalist will not kill me mi25 is a helicopter gunship .na so dem say hilux van na APC

.

#TeamBanIslam

wirinet:

Please quit that old worn out propaganda of "the northerners are using boko haram to fight an ijaw/igbo president". I know that is your campaign strategy for 2015, but if you are old enough, you will know that all previous governments from Martala till now have had to deal with insurgents one way or the other. While the military governments were able to deal decisively with them, successive civilian governments failed until it became an uncontrollable monster.

Wars are won not necessarily based only on superior fire power but also based on superior intelligence. What this article is implying is that the Boko guys have superior intelligence. Then what is the function of directorate of military intelligence? They should be very active along Nigeria borders, especially the north gathering information to prevent these kinds of attacks. What about the surveillance capability of our airforce? a functional airforce should run surveillance sorties along the borders at least twice a day.

We pride ourselves in being a military force in Africa and a rag tag militia is giving our whole military nightmares, in an open dessert for that matter. Shame

you are just showing how gullible and ignorant you can be! Open desert? Is it Maiduguri, potiskum or baga that is open desert? Have u ever been to the north or u just think the whole north is an open desert? This rag tag militias u are praising stage guerilla warfare and retreat to civilian population making them relatively hard to fish out! Incompetence you said? I guess america is more incompetent considering thd havnt defeated alqueada in decades of war! You are the incompetent one hear for not knwing anytin abt the war on terror and for politicizing the war on terror through you bizare partisan ideology and dragging the president into this!

Capnd143: you are just showing how gullible and ignorant you can be! Open desert? Is it Maiduguri, potiskum or baga that is open desert? Have u ever been to the north or u just think the whole north is an open desert? This rag tag militias u are praising stage guerilla warfare and retreat to civilian population making them relatively hard to fish out! Incompetence you said? I guess america is more incompetent considering thd havnt defeated alqueada in decades of war! You are the incompetent one hear for not knwing anytin abt the war on terror and for politicizing the war on terror through you bizare partisan ideology and dragging the president into this!

I do not know what to call you people, illiterate, dishonest or compromised? Is maiduguri, potiskum or baga a dense forest area making it difficult to survey and attack Boko Haram from the air?
Do not play on sentiments, I never praised Boko Haram, what I am admonishing is the Nigerian military for gross incompetence. Small countries like kenya knows how to deal decisively with Al-shabab. Let al-shabab try and launch an insurgent attack on kenya and see whether kenya would not pursue them into the heartland of Sumalia.

You are still reinforcing what I said. Nigeria is supposed to have a Directorate of military intelligence, each division is supposed to have intelligence unit patrolling the borders, the airforce is supposed to fly sorties twice everyday to patrol our land and sea borders - even in peace time. If Boko Haram can still operate at will then it shows that all these units of Nigeria's security apparatus are just collecting salary for nothing.

Then please and please stop using the US as an example your skewed logic of comparing terrorists operating in foreign countries outside the US to an actual terrorist attack inside the US or worse still an insurgent attack on US. Any group that carries out an insurgent attack on US is commiting mass suicide. The country you should be comparing Nigeria to is Israel, where you have terrorist attacks ( mind you not insurgent attacks). And see how Israel deals with them.

I am not in any party and I do not support any party, I am not even blaming jonathan soley for the millitary fiasco going on. I only blame him for not being decisive early enough. I am blaming all past presidents - from Obasanjo to Jonathan for allowing terrorists, millitants and insurgents to grow and thrive because of political expediency and for not equiping our military for the challenges of security of the 21st century.