480 escaped soldiers return to Nigeria

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There were indications on Monday that the 480 Nigerian soldiers who fled to Cameroon during a fierce gun battle with Boko Haram insurgents in Gamboru Ngala, Borno State had returned to Nigeria.

A military source said on Monday that the soldiers arrived in Mubi, Adamawa State by road around 5pm on Tuesday. Mubi is near the nation's border with Cameroon.

He added that the troops would be reunited with their counterparts in the North-East to continue with the ongoing operation against the insurgents.

The Defence authorities had explained on Monday that the soldiers "strayed" into the neighbouring country and therefore did not defect as widely speculated when the news broke on Monday.

The PUNCH also gathered on Monday that additional 1,000 troops were airlifted to Maiduguri on Tuesday   and that the insurgents had converted the palace of the Emir of Gwoza to their operational headquarters.

The additional troops, investigations showed, were meant to reinforce soldiers, engaged in a battle to dislodge the insurgents from Gamboru Ngala .

The fighting was said to have been raging as of   Tuesday evening.

Efforts to get the Director of Defence Information, Maj.Gen Chris Olukolade's comments on the latest developments in Gwoza and other parts of Borno State did not succeed as calls to his mobile telephone did not go through.

Olukolade had told our correspondent on the telephone on Monday that the 480 soldiers who "strayed" into Cameroon were on their way to the country following discussions between the heads of   military authorities in the two neigbouring countries.

Meanwhile, a security source   said on Tuesday   that Boko Haram insurgents had started coordinating their attacks on Nigerian troops from the Emir of Gwoza's palace.

The leader of the militant Islamist sect , Abubakar Shekau, had in a video obtained by the Agence France Presse on Sunday, announced that Gwoza had become an Islamic Caliphate.

He had also vowed that the group would not leave the town.

Meanwhile, the International Emergency Management Society of Nigeria/West Africa, has called on the Nigerian military to stop the ongoing displacement of Nigerians in the North- East.

The group, in a statement by its Director of Communications, Mr. Adesanya Adejokun, also urged the political leadership to allow the military to take on the insurgents decisively without political and ethnic colouration.

The group which is led by Air Vice-Marshal Muhammad Audu-Bida(retd.), a former Director-General,   National Emergency Management Agency, described the killings , destruction and displacement of millions of people in the North-East as an embarrassment which the military must stop.

It warned that the attack on   the Police training academy by   insurgents on August 21, 2014 would   embolden them unless steps were taken to halt their advances.

It quoted   Audu-Bida as saying "As a former military general myself, I am aware that our military is capable of quelling this insurgency because they have the training, courage and equipment to accomplish the task of securing the country's territory but they should be allowed by political authorities to carry out their duties unfettered by political, ethnic or religious coloration and or sentiments..

"For the good of millions of Nigerians, the military should take decisive action now to stop further displacement of Nigerians, destruction of farmlands, lives and property as well as occupying our territory, a situation which has become very embarrassing to Nigerians, government and the armed forces," he said.

However, camps of rebels have reportedly been uncovered between Danka and Kwandere in Lafia North, Nasarawa State.

A former magistrate in the state, Zachariah Allumaga, made this known while speaking to     journalists on the crisis in some communities which claimed more than 30 lives in the past four days.

Allumaga said he had   every reason to believe that the over 400 people   camped in the state were insurgents   from Yobe and its environs.

According to him, other insurgents were camped several months under the pretext of internally displaced persons from Yalwa Shandam in Plateau State and Takum in Taraba State.

''The camps said to be for refuges are in the other way meant for insurgents to kill the ancestral people of the state," he claimed.

PUNCH

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