TheCable

The army has confirmed that it lost an officer and three soldiers in Borno state on Thursday when their patrol vehicle encountered IED buried on the road between Kangarwa and Alagarno village.

Sani Usman, army spokesman, confirmed the incident in a statement on Friday.

He said three other soldiers sustained various degrees of injuries, while the patrol vehicle was completely damaged.

Usman, however, said three suspects who planted the explosive had been fished out and neutralised.

The army spokesman added that apart from clearance operations, troops stationed at Banki in Borno rendered humanitarian assistance to over 887 Nigerian refugees who returned from Cameroon since Tuesday.

He said the troops, also on Thursday, handed over one Jada Hachaba, who was abducted by insurgents to her mother at Gulak in Adamawa.

The army spokesman explained that Hachaba escaped from captivity, adding that she was handed over in the presence of the district head of Gulak.

At Buni Yadi in Yobe, Usman said troops in the period under review discovered a 122mm D30 unexploded ordinance inside an uncompleted building at the federal low-cost housing estate.

He said the explosive ordinance team was drafted into the scene to safely detonated the explosive.

Usman said that based on credible information, troops arrested two suspected Boko Haram militants collaborators/informants; Abubakar Ahmed, 23 and Aji Maina, 45, on Wednesday.

“Both were arrested at Garin Gada and Kanamma after painstaking training,” he said.

“Abubakar Ahmed was arrested while trying to collect relief materials for onward conveyance to Boko Haram terrorists, while Aji Maina was arrested while on transit at Kanamma en route Gamari in Niger Republic.”