He said that they are actually about 10 to 12 feet in height, and very heavily built. The soldier who didn’t give his name also informed our reporter that the Nigerian Army does not have the kind of weapons needed to fight the militants, and even if they do, cannot face the fierce, fiery looking men who abducted him and other 51 soldiers and held them for two weeks.
The soldier claimed that he was with 51 other soldiers, all of southern extraction save for one, and were sent to the creeks of Delta State to search for the militants and arrest them. “While we were moving, we didn’t really know exactly what happened, and all we heard is ‘drop your weapons!’ Then we saw them. They were giants. They were so large and fearful-looking, and they carried very large guns. Each of these guns can only be lifted by three soldiers, but each of them held one. My brother, they can break you like a stick”.
He further added that the militants took them to their camp, and allowed them to stay with them for two weeks. They also fed them, and returned their guns to them at the end of the two weeks.
“They returned our guns to us. They also gave us a comfortable sum of money and referred to us as ‘hungry Nigerian soldiers’. They said we should use the money to cater for our needs because the army is not paying us enough and we needed the money”.
When asked how the militants can be defeated, based on his observations, he said; “those people cannot be defeated. At least not by the Nigerian Army or any army like ours. Those guns, each of them had one, and the ones who arrest us alone are about 200. But there are less than 50 of such sophisticated guns in the whole nation. That’s probably why the president was begging them to take it easy with the bombings”.
The soldier also said that the only non-southern soldier that went with them on that mission was killed by the militants.
“When we were brought in to their camp, they began to ask us where we hailed from. Each of us mentioned our states of origin. But when the young soldier said he is a northerner, they picked him up and dumped him into a giant pot of boiling oil. I felt pity for him.”, the soldier ended.
