By: Simon K. Williams
News broke yesterday of the killing of an ESN commander Ikonso and “six others”. But Beneath the media sensation which expectedly followed lies the question of competence of Nigeria armed forces.
It was initially reported that the ESN commander and six of his men were killed in an ESN base during a raid by the police, with the police incurring no loss. This would have been a fair win from the police to me.
But later it was learnt that it was actually a combined special force operation from Army, police , DSS, Irt from Abuja that lead the ambush operation in which only two ESN men were killed and several security operatives including police and army were killed by few ESN men. The army initially denied casualty but has now admitted it lost four men . Considering the low pedigree of our armed forces when it comes to transparency, the figures could be close to ten men as claimed by people on ground, not including security officers killed during reprisals yesterday. The worrying part is that the military hierarchy are celebrating when actually they incurred more loss.
Note these were almost the best guys drawn from our security agents. Note also that the killed guy has been contacted by the Governor to head the SE vigilante ebubeagu, which made his identity vulnerable to attack. If the prevailing celebration mood of our military hierarchy truly reflect their mindset despite loosing more men and risk of heavy escalation, it means they are fighting a war in which army will most likely be overwhelmed in the nearest future.
Williams is a strong believer in One Nigeria and writes from Lagos.
