New information has come to light about the events leading up to the murder of Brigadier General Oseni Braimah, the head of the 29 Task Force Brigade.
The general died in a deadly attack on a military base in Benisheikh, Borno State, at midnight.
Around 12:30 a.m. on Thursday, suspected Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province fighters attacked several military positions in Benisheikh, a strategic town in Kaga Local Government Area along the Maiduguri-Damaturu highway.
The Nigerian Army said that the attack was successfully stopped and denied reports of heavy casualties and equipment failure. However, soldiers and residents said that the attack was a coordinated insurgent offensive that overwhelmed troops and caused a lot of damage.
Several people who talked to Punch said that the bandits attacked in large groups, hitting at least three military formations before moving into civilian areas.
A soldier who lived through the attack but asked to remain anonymous because he wasn’t allowed to talk to the press said that the scale and coordination were unlike anything else.
“We’re used to attacks that are planned out, but this one was different. They came in big groups from all sides at the same time. He said, “It seemed like they had been studying our positions for weeks.”
Another survivor said that the attackers had more people on their side, which changed the outcome of the fight.
“We stood our ground at first, but there were too many of them. They came at them from different sides. He said, “It was like an ambush.”
He said that the troops’ morale started to drop when rumors spread that other places had fallen and some soldiers had died.
“When we heard that our coworkers in other places had been overrun, it shook us. Then someone yelled that the Brigade Commander was dead. “That’s when fear really set in,” he said.
Sources said that the attack caused confusion and psychological stress, which made it hard for troops to work together and forced some to retreat toward the town.
The publication mentioned above said that the gunfight lasted more than an hour and a half, and that explosions forced both military and civilian people to run for safety.
After the attack, there were reports that Brigadier General Braimah was killed because a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle didn’t work right.
But military sources and people who knew the late general disagreed with this.
A source high up in the brigade said the claim was wrong.
“The attackers really did set the MRAP on fire during the attack. It isn’t true that he died because the car wouldn’t start. The source said, “The situation was much more complicated.”
Another insider said that only those who were with the general at the time of the attack could give a full account, since many of them also died in the attack.
“I know that the insurgents came in from different directions at the same time. It was like a plan for an ambush. But when the gunfight got really bad, the terrorists broke up. The source said, “Their numbers helped them; there were too many of them.”
