Buhari berates Army over insurgency

— We need support, not condemnation – Army

Former Head of State and chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), has expressed sadness over the activities of Nigerian soldiers fighting Boko Haram insurgency in the face of allegations of bribery and rape.
According to Buhari, soldiers were accused by members of the community of collecting bribes at various checkpoints rampant across Northern Nigeria and raping women during military operations.
However, in a swift reaction, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) the 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, Kaduna, Major General Garba Wahab, said  the military and other security agencies need support and not condemnation.
Buhari, who spoke to a Voice of America (VOA) Hausa programme monitored in Kaduna yesterday, said soldiers should return to the basics of military training by maintaining the standards.
“Now there are accusations that they collect bribe at checkpoints, that they rape women during operations as was the case in Borno,” he said.
“That was not known before. Now if you kill one of their own, they round up and wipe out the community like what happened at Baga.”
However, General Wahab who spoke at a stakeholders meeting on security, appealed to prominent individuals to support the military, adding that whenever the military is discredited during a battle against insurgency, the country always suffers for it.