Army unit recalls loss of 28 officers to violence

Twenty-eight officer of 72 special forces battalion of the Nigerian army, have died under violent circumstances in the last three years, according to Timothy Lagbaja, commanding officer of the battalion.

Lagbaja told journalists in Makurdi, capital of Benue state, on Wednesday that 12 of the officers were killed during the Tiv/Fulani and Agatu crises in Benue.

He said the remaining 16 were lost to insurgency in the north-east, while those who sustained injuries were either flown abroad or treated in the country.

The commander said the battalion had deployed about 500 soldiers to serve in ‘operation Zenda’, a special security outfit maintaining security in the state.

Lagbaja claimed that the effort of has paid off, adding that weapons in the hands of wrong people have been recovered.

He said the high criminality in the state had been reduced to “few isolated cases of killings’’.