Soldiers Not Cowards - Army

The Nigerian military have given its official account of why their troops who was engaged in fighting Boko Haram had escaped to neighbouring Cameroon saying it was a “tactical manoeuvre”.

Cameroonian army had today admitted that they have 480 Nigerian soldiers in their land who came to seek refuge in the Central African state.

This came a day after  Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau's new video appeared where he said that his insurgents has captured Gwoza as part of an “Islamic Caliphate”.

Spokesperson for Army, Lt. Col Didier Badjek had earlier told BBC that the soldiers where in the Cameroonian town of Maroua, about 80km from the Nigerian border.

However in a new statement, the Nigerian Defence Headquarters called the decision by the men to head into Cameroon as “tactical manoeuvre”.

It explains that the men had given their weapons to the Cameroonian army to show that  they were not on a hostile mission.

It read: “Eventually they found themselves on Cameroonian soil. Being allies the normal protocol of managing such incident demanded that the troops submit their weapons in order to assure the friendly country that they were not on a hostile mission”.

The Nigerian Army has said that soon they would be on their way back to their respective units in Nigeria after carrying out talks with its Cameroonian counterpart.

The Nigerian military have from time complained about the lack of weapons, and have accused their superiors of exposing them to the better armed Boko Haram.

Source: Legit.ng