Barely seven months as theatre commander of operation Lafiya
Dole, the Nigerian Army on Tuesday announced a replacement for Olusegun
Adeniyi, a major-general.
Known to have commanded a couple of army’s brigades in the
fight against Boko Haram, Adeniyi would now leave a less combatant life as he
is to resume at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), Abuja.
Faruk Yahaya, general officer commanding (GOC) of the army’s
1 division in Kaduna, has been named the new commander at the theatre of war.
Hours after his removal was announced, Adeniyi was seen in a
video where he told a superior believed to be Tukur Buratai, chief of army
staff, about how they had been hit by insurgents.
As the general lamented, he kept reassuring his superior
that he and his soldiers remained battle ready.
“I’m standing here with sector 2 commander. The armed
helicopter has just come over our head. The instruction I gave them, anything
moving they should engage it because most of my gun trucks are not moving,”
Adeniyi was heard saying.
“Like I said earlier, we are with the leading embrance, 3
battalion are fighting and deployed, nobody is running.
“But what we have here, I will give you some estimates to
guide your good decision, sir. Boko Haram has fired more than a hundred mortal
bombs at us, they have fired more than 80 to 100 RPGs (rocket propelled
grenades) at us in addition to more than 8 to 10 gun trucks from every side
since yesterday.
“We have not run, and the soldiers are not misbehaving or
disobeying orders. We have casualties, I will come and see you in person on
what we need to do. But we are not running.”
Pointing at the one the vehicles being fixed by some
soldiers, Adeniyi continued:“That’s one of our MRAP’s (mine-resistant ambush
protected) tyres that ran flat after bullet touched it. We have used more than
20 MRAP tyres here. That’s another one, sir. We have changed close to 250 Hilux
tyres due to the terrain. This is what we are facing.”
He added that they were ready to achieve the mission of the
superior.
It is not clear when the video was recorded, but sources
said it was at the time in January when Adeniyi’s convoy was attacked and his
driver killed in Jakana, Borno state, where the insurgents struck repeatedly.
Other military sources who spoke under
anonymity said Adeniyi may have been set up as “he is one general who doesn’t
listen to his fellow generals.”
“Yes, he is good and always leading from the front, but he
has a lot of issues with other generals and we suspect they teamed up to set
him up, if not he should still be the commander,” one of the sources said.
The army, however, had said Adeniyi’s redeployment and that
of others is a routine exercise intended to reinvigorate the system for greater
professional effectiveness and efficiency.
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