The face-off between
Nigeria and the United States over the commitment and sincerity of the US
military in assisting Nigeria to fight the Boko Haram insurgency worsened
within the week.
This followed an
allegation by a top Nigerian intelligence source that US trainers incited
Nigerian soldiers to mutiny.
The source told Punch that recent mutiny by Nigerian
soldiers was as a result of the ‘negative teachings’ by US trainers, adding that
it was a major reason the Federal Government stopped the US from training
Nigerian soldiers on counter-terrorism.
But the US in its
reaction, through the Press Attache of the US Embassy in Abuja, Sean J.
McIntosh, described the allegations as baseless.
She said, “The
allegations are baseless. The third phase of training did not occur because the
Nigerian Army failed to provide the necessary equipment for the training.”
The US, as well as the
UK, France and China, had offered help in human and technical capacities to
deal with the wider problem of terrorism in North-eastern Nigeria.
But the relationship
between the two countries worsened when the US refused to sell military
hardware, especially cobra helicopters, to Nigeria to
prosecute the campaign against Boko Haram.
The security source,
who pleaded anonymity, said the security chiefs and the Federal Government
doubted the genuineness of the motive of the US security experts in the
country.
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