The General Officer Commanding, 2 Division, Nigerian Army, Major General Chinedu Nnebeife, has disclosed that the Nigerian Air Force and drone teams deployed to track down the terrorists holding 44 abducted pupils and teachers in Oyo State’s forests could not penetrate the thick canopy of the Old Oyo National Park.
He said the failure of aerial surveillance forced troops into a ground assault that claimed the lives of an officer and a soldier.
Nnebeife disclosed this during a press conference on Monday while giving an account of the more than month-long operation that culminated in the rescue of the victims, who had spent 56 days in captivity after gunmen stormed three schools in the Ahoro-Esiele, Yawota and Alawusa communities on May 15.
He said, “Because of the nature of the forest, how thick it is, we had drone teams, we have Nigerian Air Force following up, but in some of those areas, you can’t even see, if you are under that base, you can’t see the rays of sunlight from those places and the Air Force flew, they couldn’t see anything.
“The drone team also flew, we didn’t get anything from those things and that was how we insisted on ground operation. It has to be ground, we have to go deep into the forest, and it’s during one of these operations that we lost the officer and the soldier, that particular day, and some other ones who were wounded. One of them is actually serious because he has a broken arm due to gunshot wound,” he said.
He said the setback forced him to take over full command of the operation from the garrison commander, drawing in a wider array of forces and intelligence assets from across the country to sustain the ground effort.
“The operation continued and we had to like involve a lot of agents, and I had to take over the whole operation completely from the garrison commander because we had to now bring in troops and forces from different places, providing intelligence, and I had to coordinate all these teams together.,” he said.
He listed the units eventually assembled as the special unit of the Office of the National Security Adviser, the National Counter-Terrorism Unit tactical team, and the Defence Headquarters Special Forces team made up of personnel from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Department of State Services, Civil Defence and the National Intelligence Agency.
He said the Nigerian Police also deployed separately from the special forces, alongside a DSS team from Oyo State and an Air Force Tactical Operations Group unit drawn from Kainji with fighter aircraft support, while troops from Operation Savannah Shield in Gwara formed a blocking force on the northern flank of the state.
Nnebeife said the first attempt to reach the victims, carried out with hunters and local vigilantes soon after the abduction, also failed.
“We went in with some hunters and local vigilantes, but nothing positive happened that day,” he said, adding that some of the hunters lost their lives in the course of the wider operation.
“By the grace of God, on the 10th of July, we successfully rescued 44 of them,” he said, adding that the military would never negotiate away its position, even after the loss of two teachers in captivity and the kidnappers’ demand for the release of a detained Boko Haram commander.
“I have always said we will never yield to terrorists’ demands. We will not, and we never will,” he said.
He described the final phase of the operation as a deliberate move to seal off the kidnappers’ main logistics route through a town called Ashamu, a manoeuvre that forced the group to offer an unconditional release of their captives.
“At the last phase of the operation that we had, we were blocking their major logistic. We went to a town called Ashamu to block the place, and it finally put pressure on them, and it was now they were willing to release unconditionally. But we are not giving up on them.
“We said, no, it’s not about releasing. We must see to the end of the terrorists operating in that particular region, and of course, indeed, the whole part of the country, and the glory of God, we have them here,” he said.
The rescue was earlier confirmed by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, who disclosed that eight suspected kidnappers were arrested and handed to the DSS, while several other gang members were neutralised.
He said the victims were freed without the Federal Government yielding to the kidnappers’ demands.
The Army has confirmed that the ground push came at a cost. Lieutenant Felix Isaac, a 28-year-old officer who led troops in the operation, was killed on July 10.
He was buried with full military honours at the 23rd Armoured Brigade Cemetery in Yola, Adamawa State, the same day the rescued pupils and teachers were handed over.