Metele attack : Surviving soldiers send SOS to Buhari

Some soldiers who survived the attack by Boko Haram on the military formation in Metele have sent an SOS to President Muhammadu Buhari, urging him to probe the quality of weapons procured by the military authorities and save them from further avoidable deaths.

In a video sent to journalists in Maiduguri, the soldiers accused the military authorities of providing them with obsolete weapons, which they said are grossly inadequate to effectively confront the insurgents in the ongoing counter insurgency campaign in the Northeast.

In the amateur video footage, the soldiers also levelled allegations against the military authorities accusing them of negligence which resulted into the death of scores of their colleagues in a series of attacks coordinated by the Albarnawi faction of the Boko Haram at Metele in Guzamala Local Government Area of Borno.

Foreign wire agencies reported that dozens of soldiers were killed when the insurgents attacked Metele military base on November 18.

In the video, two soldiers, who claimed to be among the survivors of the attack, narrated the precarious condition of the troops and obsolete equipment which made it difficult for them to repel the insurgents’ attack.

The video footage showed the level of destruction of military equipment and makeshift shelters, while soldiers were seen packing their luggages, apparently preparing to live the camp.

In the video, the soldiers appealed to President Buhari—they repeatedly appealed to him— to intervene to save the situation from deteriorating.

“See what the Nigerian Army has been doing to us, they brought us here. See how they killed our fellow soldiers, they burn them inside the tanks”, a narrator in the video said.

“They are using us to make money; why? Are we not human beings? They can kill soldiers inside a tank; if Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) can penetrate M-RAG vehicle, what of a fellow human being?

“This is the location called ‘Metele’, This is a place they (the insurgents) took over 40 barrel and these people want to use us, and within one week they killed over 200 soldiers and we are now 147, they want to waste us here. It is a lie, our blood is not here.

“This is a Third World vehicle, a tank manufactured in 1972; and Albarnawi broke all of it.They want to use us and we are not getting anything from them.We want to tell the government of our condition.

“Please; the Federal Government should intervene before the insurgents come and kill us. They mocked us and said we are Zombies; animals, we do not know our rights, any order given to us we will follow.

“We are millennium soldiers, most of us are graduates.