In 2015, the US Government gave the Nigerian Government 24 Mine Resistant Armoured personal carriers MRAPCs…these assets were worth an estimated $18.5m
MRAPS are basically specially hardened APC that are resistant to Mines….Boko Haram has placed mines in the North East of Nigeria….hampering the advance of the Army.
Major General Ndiomu thanked the US Army on behalf of the Government and people of Nigeria saying…”We express our most profound gratitude for the gift of Mine Resistant Ambush-protected vehicle to the Nigerian Army. It couldn’t have come at a better time especially considering the challenges that confront our armed forces in the north east,”
The Nigerians asked….the US responded….but there was a key decision taken by the US Army….they stripped the donated MRAPS of all offensive armaments….why?
Well the US Army did not want to violate the Leahy Amendment. The Leahy amendment is a U.S. human rights law that prohibits the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense from providing military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights with impunity.
What did the Nigerian Army do? They simply put arms on the MRAPS….and deployed some to the South East….not the North East.
Are there mines in the South East?
The danger is this, US may rescind the sale of armed Super Tucanos Planes to Nigeria….Nigeria needs those planes…
Nigeria has hundreds of APCs…From China, from Russia…..why did we deploy this particular MRAP to the South East?
Nigerian Army soldiers are still being killed in the North East, we see pictures of our troops in unhardened Hilux vans in the front-lines……Mobile Policewomen were recently kidnapped…from reports, there were travelling in a bus….
Would these MRAPS not be better used in North East?…
