2 Army generals escape death in Borno

The Nigerian Army yesterday said two of its senior officers escaped death by the whiskers after members of the Boko haram terrorists group planted an Improvised Explosive Devise(IED), on their route in Borno State.

The two officers, Major-General IM Alkali, the Chief of Administration (Army),  and Brigadier General VO Ezugwu, Acting General Officer Commanding(GOC), 7 Division Nigerian Army,  were said to have being on an operational visit from Bama to Gwoza, when they came across the IED, buried by terrorists.

Director, army public relations, Brigadier-General Sani Usman, said that but for the army Explosive Ordinance Device team who were able to detect the the four clustered IEDs, buried at a crossing point along Banki Junction and Pulka road, about 6 kilometres to Firgi in Borno State, the army would have being in a mourning mood.

Usman, in a statement issued in  Abuja, said “the Explosive Ordinance Device team upon sighting the IED, safely extracted and detonated them”.

In a related development, the Nigerian Army said its soldiers had recovered large cache of arms and ammunition in southern part of Kaduna State.

It listed the recovered weapons to include 73 dane guns, 4 locally made rifles, 1 locally made machine gun and 1 locally made pistol.

Also recovered were 260 cartridges, 14 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, 63 rounds of 9mm ammunition, 1 locally made small machine gun magazine, a pair of worn out military boot and some quantities of assorted improvised ammunition and pyrotechnics hidden in dug out pits.

It attributed the recovery to its recently concluded exercise in southern part of Kaduna State which covered some forests in Bauchi, Kano and Plateau, Kaduna states, saying “The discovery was made when troops embarked on cordon and search of Gwaska, Dangoma, Angwan Far and Bakin Kogi general area of southern Kaduna State.”

The Army spokesman, while noting that efforts were on to track the owners of the arms and ammunition, called on the people to cooperate with the military.

He further stated that a similar Operation being conducted by the military in conjunction with other security agencies in Kano State was ongoing to rout suspected armed bandits camps in Falgore forest.