Boko Haram: Army reinstates sacked Major General Ahmadu Mohammed secretly; unveils 2 new divisions

The Army yesterday confirmed the reinstatement of the commander whose unit rebelled in Maiduguri in 2014, Major General Ahmadu Mohammed.

Mohammed, who was shot at by angry soldiers of the 7 Division in Maimalari Barracks was quietly reinstated by the military High Command after he wrote letters seeking his re-absorption into the Army.

The soldiers became angry when they saw the bodies of 12 of their colleagues being brought back from Chibok in Borno State. Boko Haram fighters had killed the soldiers after the militants ambushed a convoy of soldiers returning from duty in Chibok township, the scene of the abduction of schoolgirls by Boko Haram militants.

A spokesman of the Nigerian Army, Col. S.K. Usman, confirmed the reinstatement of the General.

Meanwhile, the Army  yesterday unveiled a new division in the northern part of Borno State to effectively curb Boko Haram insurgency around the Lake Chad Basin.

The new unit, known as 8 Division, according to the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, was specifically set up to boost military operations against terrorists and other criminals operating within the Lake Chad Basin region.

Similarly, the Army says it plans to establish 6 Division with headquarters in the South-South part of the country.

The establishment of these divisions was necessary to improve on Army’s operational capabilities amid threats to national security.

Gen. Buratai, who made this known while delivering a lecture titled: `Nigerian Army: Challenges and Future perspectives’, at the National Defence College, Abuja, said the establishment of the new divisions, would bring to eight, the total in the Army.

The COAS, while noting that the Army would embark on an ambitious expansion programme to address manpower needs to respond appropriately to contemporary threats to national security, said: “Emerging threats to the security of our nation which has been aggravated by the proliferation of armed groups has added to the task of the military in protecting the lives of Nigerians and the integrity of its territory.”

To effectively wipe out terrorism in the country, Buratai said the Army plans to increase its personnel from its present 100,000 to over 200,000 in the next eight years.

To achieve this, he said a total of 12,000 personnel would be recruited in 2016 alone to fill the vacancies created as a result of the new establishments.