The Nigerian Army yesterday confirmed the death of its Chief of Training and Operations, Major General Yushau Mahmood Abubakar, in a road accident along Maiduguri- Damaturu Road.
Until his deployment to the Army Headquarters (AHQ) in Abuja, Yushau was the Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole; a special counterterrorism architecture to fight Boko Haram. Meanwhile, the Army said that troops of 114 Battalion killed about 16 Boko Haram suspects, who were escaping from the Sambisa, Damboa, Tokumbere and Pulka axis.
The Army also disclosed that troops of 26 and 28 Task Force Brigades repelled an early morning attack by fleeing Boko Haram terrorists on military locations at Pulka and Bitta in the fringes of Sambisa forest.
“Today, troops of 114 Task Force Battalion came under three-pronged attack by Boko Haram terrorists fanning out of Sambisa forest from Damboa, Tokumbere and Pulka axis. “At the end of the debacle, two Boko Haram insurgents paid for their atrocities with their lives while several others sustained gunshot injuries. The fate that befell those that attacked Pulka was more dreadful.
“The ever ready and vigilant troops rose to the occasion by repelling the attacks and killing all the 16 attackers and captured one of them alive during the exploitation.
“The gallant troops also recovered 11 AK-47 rifles, three General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMGs), one Browning Machine Gun (BMG) and two Toyota Hilux vehicles. Others are a 60mm Mortar tube, seven boxes of 12.7mm ammunition and one belt of 12.7mm ammunition,” the Army spokesman, Colonel Usman Kukasheka, said.
