Boko Haram: 40 mobile policemen posted to Baga still missing — Police source

No word has been heard yet from about 40 mobile policemen posted to Baga town when the town was recaptured months back before the Wednesday ransack by the Albarnawi faction of the Boko Haram.

Also, about 13 conventional policemen may have been missing in action as no word or signal has been heard from them since Wednesday evening when Boko Baram leader Habib and his factional group stormed the town with a bid to hold it after mounting their flag.

A source within the police headquarters who wanted to remain anonymous said that “no word has come to them since Wednesday” about their men adding that they would rather remain optimistic about the men who went to fight side by side the soldiers for the motherland.

“But by the grace of God, we are still expecting them wherever they may be pinned down. Let me assure you that by their training, I believe they should be fine operating on a tactical basis and if need be pin down somewhere and wait for back up from the army before retreating here if need be.

“Indeed we hear that there hàs been casualties but we cannot talk about casualties on our side yet because we have not seen any of them since the attack on Wednesday night .

“Our men are a peculiar group well trained to face any circumstances so we do hope for the best. We cannot enter into any moaning mood now because no word has come yet about their whereabouts which we believe will soon be known.” He said on phone.

Army spokesman Brigadier General Sani Usman in a release on Thursday confirmed the incident but had said that there has been a hot pursuit of the insurgents who came to kill, steal and destroy what has been built up by the government in the nine year insurgent war.

“The troops along with their Nigerian Navy counterparts put up a very determined fight to repel the attack throughout the night, while Sector 3 Operation Lafiya Dole  sent in reinforcement who are in hot pursuit of the terrorists.” Said Sani.

For those missing, he said that  a “Search and Rescue” team has been constituted by the military authorities to go after the insurgents and retrieve them if possible.

The Nigerian Air Force component has also been mobilised and are engaging the fleeing terrorists in a pounding spree aimed at neutralising them or taking out their leader.

The Habib led group has been suddenly desperate in its operation since it captured the over hundred Dapchi girls and released them holding back Leah Sharibu who was the only Christian girl in the group who refused to be radicalized forcefully.

Commander in Chief President Mohammed Buhari has vowed to negotiate the release of Saribu but no word has been heard from him till the year is now rounding up.

Boko Haram have been using assymetric tactics not known to a large number of the nation’s military and police force inspite of the training they undergo at the training base in Boni Yadi to expose them to the assymetric tactics not necessarily represented in conventional warfare which is known world wide.

This is why the hit and run tactics of the insurgents creates exasperation among the uniformed services who do not have  basic contemporary intelligence equipments to particularly monitor and withstand the brutish rules of engagements of the insurgents making them to go after them only when they have struck and undermined the ongoing rebuilding process and run away when the airforce approaches.

Boko Haram insurgents have been engaging the Nigerian  Army, navy and sometimes they fire on the airforce all these nine years without aircrafts in their kitty but they keep increasing from the west African subregion as long as such people are ready to fight for the course to establish and build a new and more authentic caliphate.