Boko Haram: Commander, Six Colonels Arrested Over Fall of Mubi
by WALE IGBINTADE AND LIVINUS MENEDI
Nigerian National Mirror
Nov 6, 2014
Former Commandant of the 23rd Armoured Brigade, Yola, Adamawa State, Col. Vincent Ebhaleme, and six other senior military officers with the rank of lieutenant-colonel have been arrested and detained by military authorities.
National Mirror gathered that they were arresteted for their alleged link with Boko their alleged link with Boko Haram, leading to the recent capture of Mubi by the dreaded Islamic sect.
Ebhaleme was the Commandant of 23rd Armoured Brigade until the capture of Mubi by Boko Haram last week. Military sources said he was said to have been arrested by the military authorities and now facing investigation over suspicion that he might have compromised his allegiance to the military and was collaborating with the sect.
When contacted, The Defence Headquarters, DHQ, said it could not deny nor confirm the arrest, adding however that anybody found culpable in the course of ongoing military operation would be dealt with decisively.
Speaking to our correspondent in Abuja, through the Director of Defence Information, DDI, Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade, said: “I am not confirming or denying it.
What I can say is that the military authority will ensure that anyone who is found culpable in the course of military operations will face appropriate military sanction.”
The military is now said to be advancing into Mubi as the new Brigade Commander for the 23rd Armoured Brigade, Col. A.B. Poopola, has formed a bulwark around some villages and an undisclosed forest at the fringes of Mubi town, now renamed Madinatul Islam by Boko Haram preparatory for an offensive to retake the town.
Military sources revealed that the new commandant, who is leading the field operations, would likely recapture Mubi before the weekend.
Ebhaleme’s arrest and detention which came shortly after the capture of Mubi by insurgents has been allegedly linked to his refusal to give the necessary firing orders that would have seen the soldiers fight to contain the sect.
Fleeing residents of Mubi said that not a shot was fired by the soldiers when the insurgents attacked the commercial border town with Cameroon. The residents also noted that the Boko Haram members who seized the military barracks in Mubi were not up to 12, following which most soldiers fled and deserted the town.
“Had the soldiers resisted the sect by attacking them and the people did not panic and fled, maybe Mubi would not have fallen to the sect,” said Deborah Itodo, a female student who watched the sect members capture the Mubi military barracks while fleeing the insurgent attacks.
But the fall of Mubi, according to the source, not long after the armoury of the command post had been stockpiled, raised eyesbrows “and triggered the investigations from the military high command as to what might have gone wrong. “It was as a result of this that Ebhaleme and other senior ranking officers, were taken in for questioning.”
Our correspondent learnt that Ebhaleme and other lieutenant-colonels had been taken to Abuja from 3 Division in Jos were they were initially interrogated. A check on Ebhaleme’s antecedents by National Mirror revealed that he had been involved in several field operations against the insurgents in Borno since 2011.
He came into fame while serving as field commander in an operation in Pompomari ward where four suspected Boko Haram members were killed while a large cache of arms was seized from the slain sect members.
The operation was reported by many media houses on January 24, 2012. It is not clear whether Ebhaleme was connected with the recent encounters with the insurgents at Bama Barracks earlier in the year.
But an unfortunate chain of circumstances involving the detained former brigade commander fuelled a growing suspicion against the officer with the fall of Mubi under his watch. However, disenchanted military officers in 23rd Armoured Division who are angry with the capture of Mubi blamed the development on the tactics of the former military commander who allegedly used inexperienced soldiers newly recruited into the army to prosecute the war against the insurgents.
In a related development, Gombe State government yesterday ordered the closure of public and private schools in the state, a day after the attack by suspected Boko Haram terrorists on two towns in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reported that parents who took their children to school on Wednesday were told to return them as the schools had been closed on the orders of the government.
Mrs. Edith Williams, the Headmistress, Bethany International College, Gombe, told NAN that she received a circular on Tuesday evening that all schools should be closed for security reasons.
One of the parents, Mrs. Hannatu Musa, said she was happy with the development as it would help to secure the children. NAN reports that the commissioner and the permanent secretary of the Ministry for Education were not available for comment, but Alhaji Sani Jauro, the Permanent Secretary, Government House, confirmed the development. He, however, said that the closure of the schools had nothing to do with security threats to the state but a “normal midterm break for students’’.
Gunmen had on Tuesday attacked Nafada and Ashaka, over 130 kilometres from Gombe, barely a week after suspected terrorists had detonated a bomb at a motor park in the state capital.
Meanwhile, a Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday sentenced a financier of the dreaded Boko Haram sect to 10 years imprisonment with hard labour.
The convicted financier was among four suspects secretly tried before Justice Saliu Saidu by the Department of State Security, DSS,. The suspects include Adamu Mohammed, Mohammed Mustapha, Bura Husseni and Mohammed Ibrahim.
Efforts by journalistes to get details of the allegations against the suspects and the actual suspect convicted were unsuccessful as no one was willing to divulge the information. It was, however, gathered that one of the suspects was convicted and sentenced to 10 years jail for sponsoring Boko Haram, while the other three were released by Justice Saidu. The suspects were said to have been prosecuted by Mr. P. Okerinmodu on behalf of the government.
Immediately the suspects were brought in to the courtroom under heavy security, all the people present, except the lawyers, court registrars and the judge, were ordered out of court and out of hearing.
Another judge, Justice Ibrahim Buba, had earlier sentenced three members of the sect to 25 years each, after finding them guilty of belonging to the fundamentalist group. The suspects were arrested in Lagos with explosives and other dangerous items.
They were said to have been arrested while planning to attack Lagos, the economic capital of Nigeria. The sect members, the first set to be arrested and convicted in Lagos, were arrested on March 21 while planning to launch an attack. In the charge against them, the prosecution alleged that the accused persons committed the offences at Plot 5, Road 69, Lekki Phase I Housing Estate, and No. 24, Oyegbeni St., Ijora-Oloye, Apapa- Iganmu, Lagos. Justice Ibrahim Buba gave his judgment in secret and pronounced the three convicts guilty of the terrorism charges.
The 17 suspects initially charged were arraigned before Justice Buba on 18- count charge of conspiracy to commit terrorism, illegal possession of firearms and being members of a proscribed organisation.
They include Ali Mohammed, Adamu Karumi, Ibrahim Usman, Bala Haruna, Idris Ali, Mohammed Murtala and Kadiri Mohammed. Others were Mustapha Daura, Abba Duguri, Sanni Adamu, Danjuma Yahaya and Musa Audu and Mati Daura, Farouk Haruna, Abdullahi Azeez, Ibrahim Bukar and Zula Diani.
According to the prosecution, the offences contravened provisions of Sections 13(2) and 17(b) of the Terrorism Act 2013. It also contravenes Sections 1, 8, 27 (1) (a) and (b) of the Firearms (special provisions) Act, Cap F28, Laws of the Federation, 2004, and punishable under Section 8 of the same act.
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| Federal Republic of Nigeria Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade. |
Nigerian National Mirror
Nov 6, 2014
Former Commandant of the 23rd Armoured Brigade, Yola, Adamawa State, Col. Vincent Ebhaleme, and six other senior military officers with the rank of lieutenant-colonel have been arrested and detained by military authorities.
National Mirror gathered that they were arresteted for their alleged link with Boko their alleged link with Boko Haram, leading to the recent capture of Mubi by the dreaded Islamic sect.
Ebhaleme was the Commandant of 23rd Armoured Brigade until the capture of Mubi by Boko Haram last week. Military sources said he was said to have been arrested by the military authorities and now facing investigation over suspicion that he might have compromised his allegiance to the military and was collaborating with the sect.
When contacted, The Defence Headquarters, DHQ, said it could not deny nor confirm the arrest, adding however that anybody found culpable in the course of ongoing military operation would be dealt with decisively.
Speaking to our correspondent in Abuja, through the Director of Defence Information, DDI, Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade, said: “I am not confirming or denying it.
What I can say is that the military authority will ensure that anyone who is found culpable in the course of military operations will face appropriate military sanction.”
The military is now said to be advancing into Mubi as the new Brigade Commander for the 23rd Armoured Brigade, Col. A.B. Poopola, has formed a bulwark around some villages and an undisclosed forest at the fringes of Mubi town, now renamed Madinatul Islam by Boko Haram preparatory for an offensive to retake the town.
Military sources revealed that the new commandant, who is leading the field operations, would likely recapture Mubi before the weekend.
Ebhaleme’s arrest and detention which came shortly after the capture of Mubi by insurgents has been allegedly linked to his refusal to give the necessary firing orders that would have seen the soldiers fight to contain the sect.
Fleeing residents of Mubi said that not a shot was fired by the soldiers when the insurgents attacked the commercial border town with Cameroon. The residents also noted that the Boko Haram members who seized the military barracks in Mubi were not up to 12, following which most soldiers fled and deserted the town.
“Had the soldiers resisted the sect by attacking them and the people did not panic and fled, maybe Mubi would not have fallen to the sect,” said Deborah Itodo, a female student who watched the sect members capture the Mubi military barracks while fleeing the insurgent attacks.
But the fall of Mubi, according to the source, not long after the armoury of the command post had been stockpiled, raised eyesbrows “and triggered the investigations from the military high command as to what might have gone wrong. “It was as a result of this that Ebhaleme and other senior ranking officers, were taken in for questioning.”
Our correspondent learnt that Ebhaleme and other lieutenant-colonels had been taken to Abuja from 3 Division in Jos were they were initially interrogated. A check on Ebhaleme’s antecedents by National Mirror revealed that he had been involved in several field operations against the insurgents in Borno since 2011.
He came into fame while serving as field commander in an operation in Pompomari ward where four suspected Boko Haram members were killed while a large cache of arms was seized from the slain sect members.
The operation was reported by many media houses on January 24, 2012. It is not clear whether Ebhaleme was connected with the recent encounters with the insurgents at Bama Barracks earlier in the year.
But an unfortunate chain of circumstances involving the detained former brigade commander fuelled a growing suspicion against the officer with the fall of Mubi under his watch. However, disenchanted military officers in 23rd Armoured Division who are angry with the capture of Mubi blamed the development on the tactics of the former military commander who allegedly used inexperienced soldiers newly recruited into the army to prosecute the war against the insurgents.
In a related development, Gombe State government yesterday ordered the closure of public and private schools in the state, a day after the attack by suspected Boko Haram terrorists on two towns in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reported that parents who took their children to school on Wednesday were told to return them as the schools had been closed on the orders of the government.
Mrs. Edith Williams, the Headmistress, Bethany International College, Gombe, told NAN that she received a circular on Tuesday evening that all schools should be closed for security reasons.
One of the parents, Mrs. Hannatu Musa, said she was happy with the development as it would help to secure the children. NAN reports that the commissioner and the permanent secretary of the Ministry for Education were not available for comment, but Alhaji Sani Jauro, the Permanent Secretary, Government House, confirmed the development. He, however, said that the closure of the schools had nothing to do with security threats to the state but a “normal midterm break for students’’.
Gunmen had on Tuesday attacked Nafada and Ashaka, over 130 kilometres from Gombe, barely a week after suspected terrorists had detonated a bomb at a motor park in the state capital.
Meanwhile, a Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday sentenced a financier of the dreaded Boko Haram sect to 10 years imprisonment with hard labour.
The convicted financier was among four suspects secretly tried before Justice Saliu Saidu by the Department of State Security, DSS,. The suspects include Adamu Mohammed, Mohammed Mustapha, Bura Husseni and Mohammed Ibrahim.
Efforts by journalistes to get details of the allegations against the suspects and the actual suspect convicted were unsuccessful as no one was willing to divulge the information. It was, however, gathered that one of the suspects was convicted and sentenced to 10 years jail for sponsoring Boko Haram, while the other three were released by Justice Saidu. The suspects were said to have been prosecuted by Mr. P. Okerinmodu on behalf of the government.
Immediately the suspects were brought in to the courtroom under heavy security, all the people present, except the lawyers, court registrars and the judge, were ordered out of court and out of hearing.
Another judge, Justice Ibrahim Buba, had earlier sentenced three members of the sect to 25 years each, after finding them guilty of belonging to the fundamentalist group. The suspects were arrested in Lagos with explosives and other dangerous items.
They were said to have been arrested while planning to attack Lagos, the economic capital of Nigeria. The sect members, the first set to be arrested and convicted in Lagos, were arrested on March 21 while planning to launch an attack. In the charge against them, the prosecution alleged that the accused persons committed the offences at Plot 5, Road 69, Lekki Phase I Housing Estate, and No. 24, Oyegbeni St., Ijora-Oloye, Apapa- Iganmu, Lagos. Justice Ibrahim Buba gave his judgment in secret and pronounced the three convicts guilty of the terrorism charges.
The 17 suspects initially charged were arraigned before Justice Buba on 18- count charge of conspiracy to commit terrorism, illegal possession of firearms and being members of a proscribed organisation.
They include Ali Mohammed, Adamu Karumi, Ibrahim Usman, Bala Haruna, Idris Ali, Mohammed Murtala and Kadiri Mohammed. Others were Mustapha Daura, Abba Duguri, Sanni Adamu, Danjuma Yahaya and Musa Audu and Mati Daura, Farouk Haruna, Abdullahi Azeez, Ibrahim Bukar and Zula Diani.
According to the prosecution, the offences contravened provisions of Sections 13(2) and 17(b) of the Terrorism Act 2013. It also contravenes Sections 1, 8, 27 (1) (a) and (b) of the Firearms (special provisions) Act, Cap F28, Laws of the Federation, 2004, and punishable under Section 8 of the same act.
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