Molly Kilete, Abuja
The Nigerian Army headquarters, in Abuja, has denied rumours making the rounds that Boko Haram terrorists killed 30 of its soldiers at Zari village in Guzamala council of Borno State, last Friday.
Director, Army Public Relations, Brigadier-General Texas Chukwu, made this known in a telephone interview with Daily Sun, in Abuja, yesterday. He said there was no truth in the report said to have been published by an international medium over the attack.
He said what happened was that soldiers on internal security operations at Zari, went on a rescue mission following an alert by the villagers that they were being attacked by terrorists who invaded their village.
He said the soldiers on receiving the alert, immediately invaded the village and engaged the terrorists in a shootout and killed several of them with the help of the Nigerian Air Force fighter jet.
Chukwu said that most of the terrorists killed during the shootout were hurriedly buried in shallow graves by their colleagues before escaping the scene.
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“It was not our soldiers that were attacked. If the story was true, journalists in Maiduguri would have reported the incident.
“What happened was that the people of that community were being attacked and some of them called our soldiers to come to their rescue.
“Our soldiers went and started firing them and they engaged them in a shootout until the NAF came and strike them because they were looting the community of their food and at the same time extorting money from them.
“We killed many of them but you know Boko Haram when you kill them, they will carry their corpses and run, that has been their tactics from the beginning. That is why if you see 100 of them, those that would be armed will not be up to 20, so that they will be able to evacuate the bodies of their dead colleagues and bury them in shallow graves and run,” the army said.