Storm troopers of the State Security Service keep a lid on proceedings at a mosque in Maiduguri
Nigerian soldiers in an Otokar Cobra APC stand ready to defend Muslim worshippers with a RPG and a GPMG
Nigerian soldiers in a Panhard VBL M11 armoured vehicle on urban counterinsurgency patrol in Maiduguri
A Nigerian soldier keeps an eye on proceedings as muslim faithful offer Eid prayers
BEEGEAGLE’S BLOG
22 August, 2013
Let me use this opportunity, on behalf of myself, Beegeagle’s Bloggers and all appreciative Nigerians to again say a big ‘kudos’ to all Nigerian defence and security personnel who risked life and limb to keep Northern Nigeria safe for the recent Eid-el-Fitr revelry. The massive security operations entailed in the worship services and festivities were indeed of mind-boggling dimensions and it was hugely successful.
It was the case that after two days of festivities in a region with 90 million people and covering a land area as vast as as Germany,Italy,Holland and Belgium (OR Ghana+Coted’Ivoire+Benin+Togo)put together, not ONE episode of mass murder, suicide bombing or such acts of terror, was recorded.
It is easy for anyone from anywhere to run their mouths based on their personal expectations or by factoring their permutations based on the three-dove pigeon hole where they operate from but savvy Nigerians know the enormity of the daunting task which the security operations presented. A real logistical nightmare entailed.
Well done, gentlemen. Make your best
efforts, even better. Sustain the efforts,
we shall overcome. Thank you very much.
Beegeagle's Blog 
world press won’t see this sucess they only see the failures a huge kudos to the armed forces
On point!
Mean-a-whiler, see gun..my papa :). SSS sabi thrill me abeg.
that soldier with the RPG on the otokar cobra looks like he’s ready to blast something. lol
these guys have really tried to contain a situation they never prepared for in just 2 years.
in 2 years almost all the leaders of boko haram have either been captured or killed. including their number 1&2. there seems to be more to our military than we know
By the way, this if for Beegeagle’s Bloggers who update Wikipedia pages.
HOW COME it is that with the extensive deployment of the Otokar Cobra APC and the Panhard VBL M11 for combat operations in northern Nigeria, they are not listed among the places where they have been deployed in combat? The Panhard Sagaie AFV has been in combat operations in the same theatre. Why is this not documented?
How come, Nigeria flew nearly 3,000 sorties using the Alpha Jet, a first by any country, yet it is not chronicled on Wikipedia? They are currently being used in NE Nigeria for combat operations and this is chronicled in the dailies.
EVIDENCE
Panhard Sagaie in N.E Nigeria
Otokar Cobra APC in N.E operations
Panhard VBL M11
ECOMOG AIR STRIKES (ALPHA JET)
Gentlemen, let us close these gaps swiftly. We need to end this trend of being shortchanged in world military history. Whatever bit that we do needs to be chronicled for the sake of those who made the sacrifices.
During the defunct SADF’s COIN operations in Southern Africa, they defined the combat deployment of the Aermacchi MB 326, licensed produced as the Impala. That is precisely what the NAF have done with the Alpha Jet. It needs to be trumpeted. It was the SADF which told the world what they did with the Impala Mk.II and the Eland AFV (their license-produced variant of the Panhard AML 90).
“If you do not blow your trumpet, it will get rusty”
Otokar Cobra updated.
Wow, very swift. Thank you, my Commander.
I will actually do some Wiki work this weekend. Prepare to be referenced in detail
where is the VBL .50cal? having too many 7.62mm on those armoured recces
SSS, they never fail to impress. guys are the sharp end of the spear. great job.
Oga Beeg….Tha na Tarvor naaaa……Good for close quarter yawa…shege mutum
Yeah I know tis a Tav, OptimusPrime. They also field the F2000. Anyhow, their weapons never fail to impress. Hope they keep it up.
Omo una see wetin dat Young Soldier hold for hand in da Last Picture see as da Bullet Belt Wrap around am dis one no be counting bullets oo…..as dem start am! Answer ur papa name 🙂
No kidding. They were ready. Dis wan nuh be say magana. Boko refused to show up for the standoff on the day..
@Oga Eyimola. No problem. Anything you need to have cleared up – let’s do this. Photos or data, I am game.
I do not see the Shilka in our logs. No Stormer APCs (our variant is the export model – the Spartan). Our 152mm guns not listed. 130mm guns under-enumerated. Ditto the APR 21/BM 21 122mm rocket arty.
Got all the data and/or photos in the blog archives. Any headsup needed, alert me one-two, one-two.
Thankfully, we have the precise titles of the archival materiel from which the A-Jet sorties thing emanated. So we have credibility on our side. Researchers can pick it up from there and the veracity of the materials is impeccable.
I would also want us to update the campaigns which the Armed Forces have been involved in to include the Malian Insurgency (we have the photos and know the sectors where they were deployed), the Cameroon Insurgency and the Liberian Civil War (we even have photos of artillerymen shelling). For Sierra Leone, do we need any links or photos? Got them aplenty…a documented account of the Battle of Freetown, battlefield accounts from Port Loko, Lungi, Bo – everywhere around that country.
kudos to the NA, it was reported that with the enormous cash to refurbish our MBTs, IFVs and APCs, our brothers from the east assisted with major repairs prior to NADCEL 2013. Tyres and other accessories were imported from Italy and other countries. If u re thinking most of the NA assets are outdated and no longer functioning then u must be sleeping. DEY BOKU FOR GROUND BEGGING FOR DEPLOYMENT.
Long live Nigerian Armed Forces…as the NA motto says, “victory…” indeed “comes from God alone.” He will continue to grant it. Viva Africa!
The one thing I am very happy to see that it appears finally we are beginning not only a maintenance culture grab hold with long tentacles across all six divisions but slowly we are beginning a procurement reality grab hold of our collective mentality.
I am thankful and really grateful for what is transpiring that we are actually seeing procurement from proforce this is very no extremely good news.
The recent success of the armed forces/ dss/ and the secret services needs to be commended. i have waited a long time to comment because i truly wanted to get a picture of what the average mohammed/ sheu on the street is saying.I have personally seen videos of females being searched/ captured and this to me in highly conservative North is the turning point.
i also said sometimes there is no better trial than a trial by fire , this is proving to be the moment of truth for the army and the dss/ sss , the sbs and the navy and they are coming as witnessed by the sheer and maniacal desperation of the remnants of the boko haram, it was reported that one of the top 5 dan muburak ( or whatever his bloody name is has been transported from sokoto TO ABUJA . This to me is evidence of this is how the ” cookie crumbles”
The procurement can not be allowed to stop we need a dual fighter jet that can transverse from the outer fringes of NIGERIA @ the border towns or Chad/ Cameroon and even land in Niger all the way from LAGOS OR CALABAR without refuelling drop its payload on those b——s and make it’s way back this will convince them there no 72 virgins .
May God bless Nigeria ALWAYS AMEN!!!
@General Eyimola. REF factually updating WIKI…headsup on
NIGERIAN INVOLVEMENT IN THE CAMEROON INSURGENCY
(write up, MINE)
Beginning in 1959, the NA (then known
as the Queen’s Own Nigerian Regiment –QONR) intervened to create a buffer zone and to secure the UN Trust Territory of British Southern Cameroons which was at the time administered in association with and as part of the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria by the British.
According to “The Bakassi Story II”
published by dawodu.com, “in October
that year (1959), the Enugu based 1st
Queens Own Nigeria Regiment (1QONR)
was temporarily deployed to Southern
Cameroons for “Training”. However, ‘Union des Populations Camerounaises’(UPC)sympathizers in Bamenda viewed this as a counter-insurgency deployment in support of the hated French colonial administration.
In early 1960, responding to more
violence in the area, the 1QONR again
returned to Bamenda area in full force,
followed shortly thereafter by the 4QONR
from Ibadan who were deployed further
south to Kumba near the coast. The 5QONR and 3QONR later replaced both battalions respectively – followed later by the 2QONR.
This show of military force did not endear Nigeria to certain opinion leaders in the local population.Therefore, the Southern Cameroons
(inclusive of the Bakassi Peninsula),
which was now under separate direct
British rule as a trusteeship territory, asked Nigerian troops to leave. A British Battalion replaced them.
However, 1QONR, supported by the new
recce unit of the newly-independent
Nigerian Army were then deployed in an
internal security precaution along the
frontier to prevent spill-over of violence.
The old Anglo-German border of 1913 was resurveyed at this time by Nigerian
military foot patrols to confirm the
location of old beacons and new Police
Posts were constructed along it for clarity.
Writing in a 30th August, 2003
commentary in the British newspaper,
“The Telegraph”, J.F Bailey, a former
overseas civil servant who served with the Colonial Office in British Southern
Cameroons wrote as follows:
http://telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/3595798/Cameroon-concerns.html
“when Cameroons suffered terrorism in the 1950s and 1960s, the Nigerian Army, the King’s Own Borderers and the Grenadier Guards sorted out the terrorists and maintained safety for the native people.”
Again commenting in a riposte titled
“Cameroon Concerns” and published in
the “Telegraph” edition of 31st August,
2003, Eric Cowell of Wicken, Cambs. wrote as follows:
http://telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/3595798/Cameroon-concerns.html
“The Cameroons were technically a UN
trusteeship, administered by Britain through Nigeria. There were terrorists in the French Cameroon, and it certainly was the Nigerian Army that first arrived to deter terrorists from crossing into
Southern Cameroon.
The tented Nigerian Army camp was located on what was then the Bamenda Agricultural Showground and Race Track. The Nigerian soldiers were replaced by the King’s Own Royal Border Regiment, who were later replaced by the Grenadier Guards, who lost at least one man in a terrorist ambush.”
CONCERNING ALPHA JET sorties in the ongoing CTCOIN operations in the Northeast
DEPLOYMENT
http://m.news24.com/news24/Africa/News/Jets-join-offensive-in-northeast-Nigeria-20130516
BOMBARDMENT
http://vanguardngr.com/2013/05/residents-flee-after-air-raids-on-boko-haram/
ECOMOG WAR STORIES (SIERRA LEONE)
1997 TAKEOVER OF THE ALL-IMPORTANT LUNGI AIRPORT BY ECOMOG TROOPS UNDER THE COMMAND OF LT.COL(NOW MAJ.GEN) A.K KWASKEBE
NAVAL BOMBARDMENT
BATTLE OF FREETOWN
PS: Note also that Nigeria have used C130s in support of combat deployments in Liberia, Sierra Leone, N.E Nigeria and Mali.
Generalissimo Freeegulf, we still use MANY 12.7mm HMG-armed Panhard VBL and Otokar Cobra Armoured Vehicles
A Browning M2 .50 calibre HMG-armed Panhard VBL in the Niger Delta
(AFP/Pius Utomi Ekpei)
Panhard VBL M11 scout car of the counterinsurgency Joint Security Task Force in Maiduguri,NE Nigeria
An array of Panhard VBL M11 scout cars at the Armoured Corps Centre, 14-5-2012
Browning M2 12.7mm HMG-armed Otokar Cobra
An imposing 12.7mm HMG-armed Otokar Cobra APC on urban CT-COIN operations
Back to you, Oga Eyimola.
The foregoing suggests that under the section for Browning M2 .50 cal HMGs, you can add that Nigerian troops have extensively deployed the HMG mounted on Otokar Cobra APCs, Panhard VBL M11s and Landcruiser gun-trucks in counterinsurgency operations in the Niger Delta, N.E Nigeria, the Jos Plateau and in Mali
MALI
You can see examples from the Niger Delta (that even has AFP embossed on the photo, so the credibility is not in doubt) and the Northeast above.
Thanks. I have updated the Parnhad VBL and Browing .5mm articles
Very well done
UPDATES FOR WIKIPEDIA
Nigerian Navy own 13 metre Aryan-1300 stealth boats
Nigerian Navy own 21 units of 17 metre Manta ASD Mk.II Littoral Interceptors.
http://defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24719:nigeria-approves-procurement-of-two-new-offshore-patrol-vessels&catid=51:Sea&Itemid=106
OCEA FPB 72 Mk.II and Shaldag FPCs
NC27 Night Cat Stealth Interceptors
http://interceptboats.com/
NIGERIAN ARMY AMPHIBIOUS FORCES
K38 COMBAT CATAMARAN
Suncraft Stingray gunboats
MODANT MARINE BOATS
Story
http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2012/09/07/nigeria-acquires-more-gunboats-for-maritime-security/
Photo
SUNCRAFT STINGRAY GUNBOATS AND LANDING CRAFT (over 200 acquired – the 150 units of 10 OBM are exclusively NA property) (extract and use Strategic Marine from weblink below, specifically the page on completed comtracts)
NA AMPHIBIOUS FORCES ALSO EXCLUSIVELY USE DOZENS OF CHINESE-BUILT GUNBOATS
STORY
http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2006/02/nigeria_turns_t.html
NIGERIAN NAVY ALSO OPERATE RAIDCO MARINE 20 METRE(65 FT) PATROL CRAFT
http://janes.com/article/12341/raidco-sells-more-patrol-boats-to-africa
NNS ANDONI
STORY AND PHOTO
http://dailytimes.com.ng/article/nigeria-commission-first-locally-made-warship
PHOTO
IGIRIGI APC
story
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/06/army-to-unveil-first-nigerian-built-apc/
photo
I need someone to contribute to this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igirigi_Apc
I will put some pics up when Wikipedia allow me to post pictures.
We shall come to that, Gen Eyimola.
First off, can we address the institutional name? We appear to be writing “Nigeria Army” instead of “NIGERIAN Army”. Please let us amend this on all writeups, sir, for the sake of precision. It is of fundamental importance. We only have one Army – the “NIGERIAN ARMY”.
For one, I would pass over a writeup which says “India Army” instead of “INDIAN Army” ; or “Canada Army” instead of “CANADIAN Army” in the conviction that the entire article itself might be fraught with errors. And there are many people like that.
It was for that reason alone that the “Nigeria Army” Facebook presence was to me, at once an unofficial presentation. That is how profound the impact of nomenclature can sometimes be.
Please amend accordingly on the Otokar Cobra, Panhard VBL and Browning M2 HMG pages as well, Oga. Many thanks for the heroic effort.
Note also that it is also decidedly the “NIGERIAN Navy” and “NIGERIAN Air Force” ; not Nigeria Navy or Nigeria Air Force which do not exist in our statute books.
Thank you so much for the time and exertion on behalf of all compatriots…except Sahara Reporters and Premium Times :). You are doing stellar work out there.
These things matter and I do not know why DMI are not looking at it that way. Hundreds of millions of people visit WIKI weekly. Imagine searching for APCs and surprisingly finding a Made-in-Nigeria APC and ship. That could generate inquiries and open doors to commercial and technical partnerships for the Andoni class ships and Igirigi APCs!
The simple but important things which we as Nigerians tend to overlook all too often.
yeah its the stupid wizard I used.
Having said that, I must point out that the usage is correct because the name of the organisation abbreviated as NA is Nigeria Army. This is a noun, and was my intended usage The colloquial usage Nigerian Army is an adjective which is also correct.
It would be incorrect to say France or India Army because neither organisation is called that. They are called ‘Armée de Terre’ and ‘Bhāratīya Thalasēnā’ respectively.
This is especially obvious when you say ‘US army’. In all examples, this is always a noun.
Abi?
That is not in doubt and for sure, this is not an issue of value judgements.
To write about our Nigerian military, we must always demonstrate our absolute familiarity with the institution and since 1963 when we attained republican status, the given names as gazetted in the statutes have been and remain
* Nigerian Armed Forces
* Nigerian Army
* Nigerian Navy
* Nigerian Air Force
I mean, it would be funny to write about a “Nigerian Defence Forces” just because that is what they do – defend the nation. The idea may be right but that is not the given institutional name. That is just the point I am making.
We have a Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Nigeria Customs Service. Even on this blog, I do not mix them up – such as saying “Nigerian Police Force” because that is not their given organisational name.