NIGERIA NEED A STRONG LEADER: Nigerian army ignored school attack warning Amnesty said on Friday it was told that security forces were given four hours notice of the April 14 attack, but failed to reinforce the town.Two politicians from Borno state, which borders Chibok, separately told Al Jazeeras Yvonne Ndege that the army had at least two hours notice. Makmid Kamara, Nigeria researcher, Amnesty International .The schoolgirls remain missing and the governments slow response to the abduction has led to protests around the country.Makmid Kamara, a Nigeria researcher for Amnesty, said: We received information and we spoke to a senior Nigerian military officer ... that they had received intelligence reports, even before local authorities and politicians got the information, that gunmen were on their way to the Chibok town.Kamara told Al Jazeera that senior officials in Maiduguri and Dambua towns were alerted at about 7pm on April 14, and that information was given to senior military officers based in Dambua and Maiduguri.Later on, at 10pm on the same night of the 14th of April, local authorities, who Amnesty had spoken to, informed us, that they informed the local military command in Chibok town about the planned attack, Kamara said.When I spoke to one of the senior military officials, they informed me that they [had] informed their superiors, and requested for reinforcement. But the reinforcement did not come.Shehu Sani, a civil rights activist in Nigeria, talks to Al Jazeera about the allegations.Only 17 troops were there to face the attack and they were outgunned and outnumbered.They had to flee for their lives together with some other villagers. This is a shocking revelation.Ndege, reporting from Abuja, said the Nigerian people would be extremely shocked and extremely disappointed to think the Nigerian military knew in advance an attack was going to take place and most would find it inexcusable.The question is, why would the military deliberately choose to ignore this SOS? said our correspondent.They are simply not prepared to give the details of any operation to find the girls. They say it might actually harm the girls.
Posted on: Sat, 10 May 2014 11:12:40 +0000