FILE PHOTO: Nigerian Army troops clearing
Boko Haram enclaves along Bitta to
Tokumbere, Sambisa Forest, Borno state 

In a desperate cover-up of its
handling of the 83 missing
soldiers after a Boko Haram
attack, two senior officers of the
Nigerian Army have given
uncoordinated statements on the
attack.
While the man who officially
speaks for the Nigerian Army
claimed the army could not
release true figures of the
missing soldiers, a major general
several hundred kilometres away
said only “39” soldiers are
missing.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported
how 83 Nigerian soldiers,
including a commanding officer,
went missing after a major attack
by insurgents.
Several of the soldiers, who fled
their station due to the superior
firepower of the terrorists, were
later feared dead from drowning
in the River Yobe.
On Wednesday, at two different
interactions with the media,
Army spokesman Sani Usman,
and Lucky Irabor, the Theatre
Commander of Operation Lafiya
Dole in the north-east, issued the
different statements to reporters
about the number of missing
troops.
While Mr. Usman, a colonel, told
an online news platform, Pulse
Nigeria, that the Army won’t
disclose the number of missing
soldiers, Mr. Irabor told reporters
in Maiduguri that 39 soldiers
were missing.
In his interview, Mr. Usman told
Pulse Nigeria that the Army
issued a statement after the
attack, but did not give the
number of missing troops.
“We issued a statement of what
happened. We did not mention
the number of soldiers that were

missing.
“Eventually, we went to the theatre of war.
But they didn’t bother to ask us that we
should tell them the number of soldiers that
were missing,” Mr. Usman said.
Despite being pressed about the specific
number of those missing, Mr. Usman
remained elusive. Apart from deflecting
questions, Mr. Usman also charged this
newspaper to justify the missing persons —
completely absorbing the Army of the
responsibility to give names and figures of the
missing uniformed men.
“Yeah, but the figures Premium Times reeled
out are outrageous and not correct. I tried to
make them understand that look, all you have
to do is ask for information, not speculate, not
say that everybody is a criminal because that
is the way it looks like,” Mr. Usman said. “I
declined to comment on the number Premium
Times gave so that wherever they got that
information, they should go and justify it.”
On his part, Mr. Irabor was quoted by the
New Agency of Nigeria as saying that the
Army declared 39 soldiers missing.
“It is true that about 39 soldiers were declared
missing,” the major general said even though
his statement was the first official one
mentioning a figure for the missing officials.
Mr. Irabor added that some of the soldiers
have returned, but declined to provide
figures, NAN reported.
”I want to inform you that a sizeable number
of our soldiers had returned to base,” Mr.
Irabor said. “I think it is only a handful that
have not been found.”
Mr. Usman had in a different interview
maintained that the Army will not release the
number of missing soldiers to avoid
complicating rescue efforts.
Notwithstanding, PREMIUM TIMES stands by
its reports that 83 soldiers were feared
missing in the attack, which also left some
soldiers dead.
As with the missing, the Army had been
silent on the number of dead soldiers from
the attack.
On Wednesday morning, this newspaper
reported that the Army had launched a probe
into the Gashigar attack. A colonel who was
amongst those missing had since been
replaced by a captain.
The army’s refusal to come clean on the fate
of the soldiers appears part of efforts to
manipulate information to the public on the
happenings in the north-east.
In December 2015, the Minister of Information
and Culture, Lai Mohammed, asked the media
to consider “national interests” when
reporting Boko Haram attacks, a euphemism
used by many governments to seek
suppression of unfavourable stories.
“Acting in the national interest means not
playing up reports of cowardly Boko Haram
attacks on soft targets,” Mr. Mohammed said
during a press briefing on Christmas Eve.
Also, following our exclusive report last
Saturday about how soldiers were enduring
months of unpaid salaries and their
allowances also being held by their superiors,
the Army hurriedly began paying them that
same weekend.
Several troops confirmed the development to
PREMIUM TIMES.
Presently, family members of soldiers
stationed at Gashigar are getting increasingly
agitated because they haven’t been able to
contact their loved ones.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt that telecom signals in
the area have been put off, making it difficult
for family members to confirm whether their

loved ones were amongst those missing.