However, the same commanding officer who accused all the soldiers of mutiny admitted, on cross-examination, that 47 of the 68 who refused joined the additional personnel he asked for from 7 Div Headquarters when the first batch he sent earlier was ambushed and overpowered at Delwa by Boko Haram.

Before they returned from the operation though, 13 of those who refused to join were picked up by the Military police, but eight voted with their feet!

As reported by the media that covered the trial, Falana, however, said that the prosecution had no evidence whatsoever to prove that the soldiers were guilty of mutiny. He demanded for the record of ammunition used in that military campaign.

Up to this point, the media were allowed to be at the proceedings. After Opurum’s statement, which tended to contradict the “mutiny” charge, especially for the 47 that later joined the operation and many other things, the military High Command decided to shut out the press. In other words, from the second day, the matter held in secret.

The Secret Statements
When the court sat the following day, sans media coverage, the Defence counsel continued his cross-examination. However, TheNEWS was able, through military sources, to get what transpired at the Court Martial at Mogadishu Baracks, Abuja. In other words, the secret revelations began from here.

Opurum first answered a question on the vertical ‘command and obey’ structure of how to proceed on operations. That is, order would emanate from Opurum’s superiors to him; he would brief his company commander, who would instruct the platoon commander who will brief his men.

•Badeh: Chief of Defence Staff

The cross-examination proceeded to the system of carrying out an attack: advance to contact, advance to contact and pursue and advance in contact. Opurum, in his answer, admitted that advance requires enough planning and when asked about whether there was adequate planning, he replied that he and his officers and men had a hasty attack.

And when he was asked what plans the Army had on 4 August 2014, he replied that these were in the areas of intelligence, equipment, air support and cover. When the Defence probed further, Opurum expatiated by mentioning the recce group and that he did both map recce and intelligence information from what was supplied by higher authorities.

Did he ever verify what was on the map with facts on ground since the essence of recce (reconnaissance) was to be certain of the terrain he was going to? He did not! Here lies the problem, a military source told TheNEWS. He wondered why Opurum, a commanding officer, would receive map reconnaissance from the military high command without visiting the war front to ascertain the terrain!