Three soldiers dismissed from the Nigerian Army for various
offences –Linus Owalo, Godswill Steven, and Chinasa Orji – have said they
trained over 4,000 Eastern Security Network members after the Indigenous People
of Biafra made them mouth-watering, including overseas training.
The suspects also claimed that IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu,
promised them that “when” the State of Biafra was achieved, they would become
military generals in the new country.
However, the suspects said they discovered that all the
promises IPOB made to them were lies, adding that since helping the proscribed
secessionist group to train ESN members, none of the promises had materialised.
Owalo, Steven, and Orji spoke after their arrest by operatives of the Intelligence Response Team of the Nigeria Police Force.
ESN, regarded as IPOB’s armed wing, has been accused of
violence in the South-East, including attacks on government facilities and
killing of security agents.
It was gathered that the trio were rounded up after
the IRT, acting on intelligence, raided ESN’s hideouts in Imo, Anambra, and
Delta states, as well as Abuja.
It was learnt that Owalo, a 32-year-old father of two, was
enlisted into the Nigerian Army in 2013 and attached to 102 Guard Brigade
Battalion, but was dismissed in 2019 from the army for deserting.
His colleagues, Orji and Steven, were also enlisted into the
Nigerian Army in 2015 and 2017, respectively, and were trained at 133 Special
Force Battalion. But were both dismissed in 2020 and went to join the ESN to
train its members in Abia and Delta states.
Confessing, Owalo, an indigene of Yala Local Government Area
of Cross Rivers State, said, “I was enlisted into the Nigerian Army in 2013 and
posted to the Guards Brigade Headquarters, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
But in 2019, I was absent on duty and the army authorities arrested me. I was
charged and subsequently dismissed from the service.
He said he was later contacted by the IPOB and moved to a
forest in Abia State, where “I trained over 4,000 ESN members. This was in
October 2020. I also met some other dismissed soldiers of the Nigerian Army at
the ESN camp. Three months into the training, I was redeployed to the ESN camp
in Delta State. All this while, they didn’t allow me to speak to Nnamdi Kanu. I
was just talking to his boys. I was used and brainwashed by IPOB.”
Another suspect, Steven, a 33-year-old indigene of Bende
Local Government Area of Abia State, said he joined the Nigerian Army in June
2017 and was attached to 133 Battalion, and eventually deployed in Maiduguri,
Borno State, in 2018.
Steven said he was dismissed from the army for deserting his
base, explaining that he left his base because he sustained injuries at the
battlefront but was not allowed to go for treatment.
He said, ““I eventually dismissed by the Nigerian Army and
accepted IPOB’s offer. I was paid N100,000, which was twice the salary I was
earning at the Nigerian Army. I travelled to Abia State, where Orji and I took
oaths to be loyal to Nnamdi Kanu. We trained ESN in combat and special forces
manoeuvring.”
Steven said he eventually left the ESN camp when it became
clear that the promises made to them were not materialising.
The third suspect, Orji, 23, said he was dismissed by the
Nigerian Army in 2018 after attending the burial of his elder brother, a
soldier, killed on August 22, 2018, against the order of his superiors.
He said, “My bosses refused to give me a pass to attend my
brother’s burial, so I travelled without permission. When I returned to base, I
was arrested and detained.
“While in detention, I started chatting with a friend who
told me that Nnamdi Kanu needed my service to train IPOB militias. He told me
that Kanu was ready to pay me twice the money I was earning in the army. I
accepted his offer after my dismissal.”
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Stupid and unintelligent story. Even a two year old child will laugh and make fun with the story and the writer
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