Nigerian military recaptures Bama from Boko Haram

The Nigerian military recorded a major victory yesterday with the recapture of Bama, a historic Kanuri town and the second largest city in Borno State after Maiduguri, that has been under Boko Haram occupation since September last year.

The military has made several unsuccessful attempts in the past to recapture the strategic town from the insurgents.

But with yesterday’s recovery of Bama, the military added a major notch to its string of recent victories against the insurgents.

A military source disclosed that the battle to uproot the insurgents from the town was led by the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 7 Division, General Lamidi Adeosun.

The GOC, an infantry general, took his team to the town on Monday and had uprooted the insurgents by yesterday.

A military source said the Nigerian troops did not meet any serious resistance from the sect in Konduga and Bama towns, confirming the view that the strength of the terrorist group might have been whittled down since the commencement of the current campaign.

The military source attributed the victory to the renewed motivation of the troops, the bravery of the GOC and the supply of new equipment.

The source said: “We are happy that our Commander-in-Chief has been able to upgrade our equipment and as we speak, we have the right equipment to end the war in the next one week.

“The GOC himself is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that we meet the deadline for the elections.

“The general did not even utilise our crack boys in Konduga. He just took his team from our supply of new boys here and drove straight into Bama leaving the Konduga guys to rest and continue watching his back till he took over Bama, chased the insurgents out and removed their flags and installed our authority.”

Another military source said: “This latest feat can be attributed to the support from Abuja – we now have the right kind of equipment to fight the insurgency to a standstill.”

He revealed that with the recapture of Bama, the foreign soldiers who had been restricted to the border towns could now come in for the final push against the insurgents.

With the latest recovery of Bama, hopes were high that the remaining towns still under the control of the insurgents would be freed.

Credit: ThisDay