When journalists joined battle against Boko Haram

Saturday, August 22 was a day journalists covering the Defence beat were ‘enlisted and drafted’ into physical combat against Boko Haram.
It was a day the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Tukur Buratai led officers and soldiers to rout terrorists’ hideouts in Borno State which is one of the strongholds of the terrorists.
Also included on the deadly mission were journalists covering the defence beat, who were inducted into the operation.
The operation was no doubt a suicide mission, but the army chief who was in so much hurry to bring the reign of insurgency to an end decided to lead his men as a way of boosting their morale.
The induction of the pressmen into the operation according to Buratai was to make them have a feel of what our military men and women deployed to fight the insurgents face and to let them have first hand information and experience in counter insurgency operation.
Yours truly was among the few journalists invited to the assignment, which started on Tuesday, August 18 from Abuja.
Abuja Metro reporter’s Boko Haram duel
On getting to Maiduguri, reporters were taken straight to the lodging base and briefed on the itinerary for the weeklong programme.
The next day, Wednesday, we were taken to the Maimalari Barracks, which is also the headquarters of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army. The security to access the barracks despite the presence of solders accompanying us was really intimidating as the military police and intelligence officers posted at the gate took time to grill the soldiers and only gave us access after they were satisfied with explanations from their colleagues.
While in the barracks, we were asked to drive straight to the residence of the Chief of Army Staff, General Buratai, who welcomed us and invited us to have breakfast with him.
In the house with him were principal staff officers from the Army headquarters, the General Officers Commanding 7 Division and other very senior officers.
Before our arrival, the chief and his entourage had been in Maiduguri, for about one week where he had virtually relocated to since he took over as COAS.
After breakfast, General Buratai, had a brief chat with us on the need for the Nigerian media to support the troops in the fight against insurgency that has ravaged the North East the country.
While Buratai, did not totally condemn the media over their reportage on the counter insurgency operations, he called for more positive publicity and support not condemnation of soldiers who are in the war front to salvage the nation from the terrorists who have vowed to taken over some parts of the country and instill sharia laws which he said the army would not allow.
He reminded members of the media that the Nigerian armed forces is the only institution holding the country together that has made Nigeria to remain indivisible so far.
According to him, some of the reports the media are so demoralizing that sometimes they in the military wonder if some of the practitioners were Nigerians as no media in the world would destroy its own country’s army the way the Nigerian media seems to do.
He however noted that things were beginning to change and expressed the hope that the media would continue to work with the military to win the Boko Haram war.
He further educated us on the ongoing operations and the sacrifices made by members of the armed forces.
At the end of the meeting, we told him about our grievances as to why some of he publications he considered to be unpatriotic may have been published and called for synergy between the military and the media to overcome some of the obstacle the media sometimes encounter to get first hand information on the counter insurgency, which he promised to sustain as long as he remains in office.
With the meeting over, we were taken on a tour of Maiduguri, after which we returned to our lodge.
Later that evening, I got in touch with the director, public relations and information of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Dele Alonge, who was also in Maiduguri, with his boss. As we got talking, I asked him about the role of the NAF in the counter insurgency operations aside aerial bombardment of terrorists’ camp and support to the ground troop. And he told me the NAF had just established a level two hospital in one of the largest IDPs camps in the state with over 22,000 persons and that the NAF is going round all the IDPs camps in the state to offer free medical services.
I got interested in the free medical services and asked if I could visit any of the camps where such services were taking place.
Alonge immediately contacted the medical director in charge of the NAF station in Maiduguri, who said they had just finished on the day he called and promised to hold another outing the next day.
On the agreed date, which incidentally was activities free for us, he sent his driver and escort to my lodging camp to bring me to the camp located at Government Girls College, Yerwa, where indigenes from Bama are kept.
At the camp, I saw babies, children, teenagers, men, women, pregnant women and people of all ages.
I took time to talk to some of the displaced persons especially the children, and to my surprised most of the children who are not more than ten years old narrated their experiences and how they trekked from Bama to Maiduguri after the terrorists invaded their village.
Some of them said their parents have been killed by the terrorists, while others cannot really tell whether or not their parents were alive because according to them, on the night of the attack, they all ran in different directions.
Going to Sambisa Forest
The acting director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Sani Usman, had informed us via a text message to get ready at 6 o’clock in the morning when the bus would come and pick us. We did. The bus came and took us first to the home of the COAS, where we had breakfast with the chief and his lieutenants, who were all kitted and ready for the battle.
After that, we were given helmets and fragmented jackets for safety precaution to get us into the operation. Thereafter, we were then distributed into different patrol vehicles for the operations by an officer in the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
I was to board the first vehicle which incidentally was the escort vehicle but was told that the vehicle was the lead escort and would need to go in advance of the chief along other heavy artillery vehicles to clear the way for us.
I was then taken to another vehicle, and within 20 minutes, we hit the road to Gamboru Ngala border.
We stopped briefly at Mafa town where soldiers had been deployed on internal security operations. There, the army chief addressed the soldiers and commended them for a good job and encouraged them to keep the good fight saying Nigerians people were behind them even as he assured them that their welfare, logistics and other things meant to keep the operations unhindered were being looked into by President Muhammadu Buhari himself.
He said with the successes so far recorded in the operations, it was evidentially clear that they would soon return to the barrack to reunite with their families.
Ambushed by Boko Haram
With the address over, we continued with our journey to Dikwa town. Barely few minutes into our journey, we received a security report that one of the advance team vehicles had been attacked by the insurgents who had laid an ambush to our convoy.
But the terrorists met a brick wall as the soldiers returned fire on them killing five on the spot and charged into the bushes where they attacked from and arrested some of them and seized their weapons.
As the message came, we made a brief stop on the road while the soldiers took charge and asked the journalists to remain in the vehicles. It was while we were waiting for clearance from the advance team that we spotted a group of people among some cattle rearers. Their movement raised suspicion from the soldiers who signaled them to advance to where they are. Because they refused the order, the soldiers fired a warning shot, while at the same time charging into the bush where they took refuge among the herdsmen.


Check the The Sun newspaper for the full story.