Deji Elumoye in Abuja
Chairman of the Senate committee on Army, Senator Ali Ndume, on Tuesday disclosed that a total of 847 Nigerian soldiers had lost their lives to the Boko Haram insurgency in the last six years.
Ndume, who spoke on the recent visit of the National Assembly joint committee on Army to the war theatre in Borno state, said the Army high command gave the casualty figures to the committee last Thursday.
According to him, the Army commander was able to make available a breakdown of the military casualties to the Boko Haram insurgency since 2013.
He added that the committee members were able to visit the cemetery “where the dead soldiers were interred to see things for ourselves”.
Ndume, however, expressed concern over the inadequate annual budgetary allocation to the military and stressed the need for the defence ministry to be adequately funded.
The former Senate Leader cited as example the N100 billion voted for the defence ministry in the 2010 Appropriation Bill noting it “is insufficient and less than one percent of total budget estimate and something urgent needed to be done for enough funds to be accessed by the military to fight Boko Haram insurgency”.
Details later…
