In yet another tragic setback for Nigeria’s counter-terrorism war, at least 167 police officers have absconded from a training facility after being told they would be deployed in active combat against Boko Haram insurgents, PREMIUM TIMES can report today.

The fleeing officers, who have now been declared wanted with potentially grave consequences if found, were amongst the 2,000 additional police officers recently drafted by Inspector-General Ibrahim Idris to complement the efforts of the military against rampaging terrorists in the volatile North-east.

The officers did not submit their arms, ammunition and other official equipment in their possession when they fled, introducing a serious security threat to their abscondment, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

Mr Idris deployed them after Boko Haram’s invasion of Nigerian Army 157 Task Force Battalion on November 18 prompted calls for intensified synergy amongst security agencies.

They were sent on an induction training at the Nigerian Army Special Forces Training School in Buni Yadi, Yobe State. But many of them started fleeing last weekend after learning that they would be deployed to locations where Boko Haram fighters are still active, especially communities along Nigeria’s border with Niger and Chad Republic.

Top security officials briefed on the development told PREMIUM TIMES the mobile police officers had expected to be deployed around Maiduguri, the capital of Boko Haram’s heartland of Borno State, and other relatively peaceful settlements in the region.

“It was after their training when they were told that they will be deployed to the frontlines that many absconded,” the official said under strict anonymity because the matter was still being handled with utmost secrecy amongst the military and police leadership. “They thought they will be deployed in town to mount checkpoints and be extorting innocent citizens.”

The official, however, said the public should be reluctant in condemning the police officers, saying their action was largely informed by the recent development in the counter-terrorism operations.

“They are seeing how the operation is being mismanaged by an incompetent and corrupt Army leadership, and therefore do not want to suffer the same fate as soldiers who are being wasted carelessly in large number,” the official said.

Another senior mobile police officer in one of the units affected questioned both the training and deployment of the officers.

“When did the police start sending its officers to army training school when we have our own. Even when they are deployed for joint operations, each agency trains its own,” the officer said. He confirmed that the various heads of the mobile units had been informed about the deserters and given orders to find them.

PRODUCE WITH ESCORT
Neither the police nor the Nigerian Army was willing to comment on the development when reached by PREMIUM TIMES Thursday morning. But this newspaper has obtained documents showing that all the 167 officers who absconded have been declared wanted.

Security sources said messages had been sent to different mobile police units where the 167 officers were respectively drawn, with strident instruction that they must be tracked down, arrested and produced with escort because they might be harmful, especially since they fled with their arms.

The alert was sent to about 25 mopol units in 20 states across the country, with their names and service numbers attached. Like the military, there are usually serious consequences for refusing deployment in the police.

Since the officers are still within the rank-and-file, they are likely to face orderly room proceeding if found, and disciplinary actions could range from long suspension to outright dismissal, depending on the trial officer and individual context.

A WORSENING INSURGENCY HUSHED UP

Military sources said the disappearance of the 167 police officers, when considered alongside the string of attacks on military bases by Boko Haram, showed that the military leadership was insincere about the state of the war against the insurgency.

Mr Buratai often warns military personnel against sending out details about developments on the battlefronts, saying such disclosure could demoralise troops.

This is despite President Muhammadu Buhari and service chiefs’ perennial insistence that the insurgency had been defeated, ascribing frequent deadly attacks to the sect’s remnants hibernating along the fringes of Nigerian divide with Niger and Chad.

“The situation is really terrible in the North-East,” a military chief said of the nearly 10-year-old war. “It has never been as bad as it is right now.”

Security analysts acknowledged there were initial successes between late 2014 and late 2015, but this was largely attributed to foreign mercenaries who were contracted by the last administration.

Dozens of attacks have been carried out against Nigerian military formations since July, leaving hundreds of soldiers dead amidst fear of a resurgent sect.

But the military rejected insinuations that the insurgents had regrouped, pointing to its recorded gains of pushing them back into the fringes of three states of the North-east, as against several states they were operating in before 2015.

The military said asides being confined to fewer states along the Nigerian border with Niger, Chad and Cameroon, the sect has also been prevented from being able to carry out attacks on major Nigerian cities like Kano, Abuja and Kaduna, where it detonated several explosives in the past, including the bombing of the United Nations office in Abuja.

See Full List

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/302891-exclusive-167-police-officers-abscond-from-deployment-against-boko-haram-full-list.html
cc: mynd44

90% Southerner.. Una do well.

na

Buhari the Jihadist. People wonder why every security apparatus is headed by a Northerner.

Would you blame them??

What a list and a silly display of bigotry.

They no longer give a worry to even as much as try toning down their reckless divisive and lopsided selections and appointments.

If it were to be a selection for juicy Federal government positions, a huge reverse would have been the case with the names on the list. But now that it is a suicide mission, who better to throw under the bus than the names on that list above.

What a sick and pathetic administration.

Tueeehhh

Mostly Igbos....Coward Tribe!

tope777:
90% Southerner.. Una do well.

I tire

lol, the zoo security forces are only courageous against unarmed civilians, they should deploy all SARS operatives to the frontlines. i want Buhari to win the presidential elections for another 4years, by the end of it, Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen would have officially occupied large swats of the north and middlebelt with the security forces looking helplessly.

good they saw danger and applied caution unlike those in the army

I can perceive from this that the military is highly depleted. The army now want to waste Southern policemen. Haba Nigeria Police. When did it become the police that fight wars?
Any Southerner still in the Armed Forces should just be prepared to die. The die is cast and the North is fully out to destroy Southern lives fir a war they propagated on hate of Jonathan.

Philistine:
Mostly Igbos....Coward Tribe!

I personally counted about 56 Yoruba names. The Hausa Fulanis on the list are very few. The rest are Ibos, Southern Christians.
Why deploy police to war front? These people did not sign up for war. They cannot be blamed. Simple!

And some southerners including some ignorant Christians are busying campaigning for the old and unrepentant bigot

Why can't they deploy all SARS Police men Nations wide to go and show their skills to bokoharam.
Useless Nigeria Police.

Guess we can all see that the BH fight is an annihilation war? See the ethnic distribution of the units contributing forces?

The hausa-fulani PMF guys are scanty meaning others are being herded to the gallows for BH consumption.

Cursed remains any zombie that give support to this wicked government.

The chicken have come to roost. The south eastern and western region have seen untold marginalization in the hands of Nigerian leadership as a whole. It’s a concerted effort by both the northern and southern western politicians to muzzle and possibly fizzle out the south eastern and south southern part. We have federal character principles but when it comes to enrollment into federal programs, the north takes 80%, south west take 15% and the other regions battle for the 5% with foreigners. The demand for military force have arisen, and they are complaining fowl, but are quick to justify the violation of federal character.

Don’t be surprised when a new set of recruitment will commence strictly for enlisting the southeast and south south for insurgency war/killing.

The chicken have come to roost!

If truly this is the list, then congratulations to the deserters. They don't deserve to be sent to face BH ill-equipped and poorly motivated.

Imagine soldiers on the front line complaining of hunger! What silliness and lack of empathy from those who ought to care!

But this is a little bit complicated; in youth service, corps members from the south are sent to the north while those from the north are sent down south.

Also, many of the soldiers of Operation Pulo Shield in the Niger Delta are from the north. I suppose that's just the rule. My grouse with this deployment therefore is that these police officers are complaining of having not been trained enough for the assignment they're being sent for in the north east.

the reality of this insurgency is that PMB is grossly incompetent to deal with the issue, but rather finds comfort in deceit & vile propaganda which is effectively disseminated by his footsoldiers across various social media platforms.

The list should have been populated by northerners so they fight their own war

Kai see how they want to kill all the SE/SS

Racoon:
Guess we can all see that the BH fight is an annihilation war? See the ethnic distribution of the units contributing forces?

The hausa-fulani PMF guys are scanty meaning others are being herded to the gallows for BH consumption.

Cursed remains any zombie that give support to this wicked government.

Rubbish, the list contains names of only those who have absconded; not of the entire list of officers deployed; evidently southerners seemed to have dominated the list of the cowards who ran away; while it can be safely assumed that majority of northerners chose to stay put and faithful to their posting to face Boko Haram.