The military has said the shooting at the Maiduguri airport, on Sunday night, which fuelled anxiety among residents, was carried out by ‘unscrupulous’ troops that misunderstood redeployment procedure of troops in the counter-insurgency operation.
Spokesman of the counter-insurgency operation, Operation LAFIYA DOLE, Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, in a statement, on Monday, said the redeployment which caused ‘a riotous reaction’ from about 300 Special Forces deployed to Maiduguri since February 2015 was to ‘reinvigorate the security architecture of the city.’
“The redeployment became expedient after a recent assessment of the security situation by the Theatre Command.
“Regrettably, however, a few of the troops who had misunderstood the development and erroneously assumed it was going to negatively affect their rotation from the Theatre of Operation became agitated and reacted by firing into the air,” Nwachukwu said.
He said calm had been restored at the airport and its environ as the new Theatre Commander, Maj.-Gen. Abba Dikko, had visited the airport where the troops were camped and admonished the forces.
“The Theatre Command undoubtedly considers this ugly incident quite regrettable and appropriate measures are being taken to forestall a recurrence,” he said.
He urged residents to remain calm and go about their normal activities as the situation was under control.
