10 generals reported guilty of helping Boko Haram
Print Edition
TEN generals and five other senior military officers were found guilty in courts-martial of providing arms and information to Boko Haram extremists, a leading Nigerian newspaper reported yesterday.
The news follows months of allegations from politicians and soldiers that some senior officers were helping the Islamic extremists and that some rank-and-file soldiers even fight alongside the insurgents and then return to army camps.
They have said that information from officers has helped insurgents in ambushing military convoys and in attacks on army barracks and outposts in their northeastern stronghold.
Leadership newspaper quoted one officer saying that four other officers, in addition to the 15, were found guilty of “being disloyal and for working for the members of the sect.”
Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Chris Olukolade did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Last week, he denied that senior military officers were being investigated for helping Boko Haram and sabotaging a year-old offensive to curb the 5-year-old uprising that has killed thousands.
Boko Haram has attracted international condemnation since its April 15 abduction of more than 300 schoolgirls, of whom 272 remain captive.
Activists pressing the government to rescue the girls filed a complaint yesterday against a police ban on protests.
“We filed a complaint that the police don’t have any right to stop people from expressing themselves,” said community leader Pogu Bitrus of Chibok, the town from which the girls were abducted.
Protests have “degenerated” and are “now posing a serious security threat,” Abuja police commissioner Joseph Mbu said in yesterday’s statement banning protests on the issue.
The kidnapping crisis has highlighted Nigeria’s failure to curb Boko Haram’s uprising.
Leadership newspaper yesterday quoted military officers saying the 15 found guilty of providing arms to Boko Haram are among many more being tried at divisional level. The verdicts are being referred to defense headquarters in Abuja, the capital, where the fate of the officers will be decided, the newspaper said.
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