The Bama Brigade case heats up

Global Military Justice Reform reported a few days ago about a large loss of arms to Boko Haram in Nigeria. Army authorities in Nigeria are promising accountability up and down the chain of command:

The source said, “The issue is that these people simply did not stay to fight. They abandoned the armoury for the Boko Haram to cart away a lot of arms and ammunition; and I can say that very heavy armament is involved here.

“In the military, you don’t have to be told that it is your responsibility to defend your barracks; they are being charged for cowardice. Every one of them will be tried.

“It is not only the Brigade Commander that is involved. All the officers in the Brigade from Brigadier General to Colonel, to Lt. Colonel, to Major and down to Lieutenants; one by one have been categorised with the equipment under their control. . . .

“The equipment that was being stored for this operation were taken away by the Boko Haram; these people simply donated them to the Boko Haram. The insurgents were packing the arms and ammunition for about three days. In fact, they are fighting us with some of these weapons.”

Another military source said that the leadership of the military would address the issue of cowardice which was a grave offence under the military law. . . 

However, another security source explained that it was difficult for the soldiers to stop the Boko Haram attack because of the state of the barracks which was said to be without fence.

“There is no fence around the barracks; they only dug mounds of sand around the barracks. While the general was there, the place was not safe. The place was not strongly fortified so it didn’t take them long to overrun the barracks,” the source said.