On Saturday, Brigadier-General Dazama Zirkusu and three other soldiers paid the supreme sacrifice in a very rare display of gallantry against terrorists in Borno, according to a statement by the Nigerian Army.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time insurgents would kill high-ranking soldiers fighting them. Why then did Zirkusu’s death disrupt the media space? 

Since the beginning of the Boko Haram jihad in 2009, Brig-Gen Zirkusu has been the highest-ranking officer killed by the terrorists. Although a number of colonels, lieutenant-colonels and majors who led troops in operations had died in the line of duty, Zirkusu is the first fallen general, a report by Daily Trust revealed.

Like Zirkusu, some of the senior army officers killed were believed to have the potential to end terrorism, but were ended in the middle of the war. FIJ highlights some of them here.

2016

Muhammad Abu Ali, the officer who was granted accelerated promotion from the rank of major to lieutenant-colonel in September 2015, was killed in 2016. 

Ali could not have achieved this greatness just by being influential. His courage and commitment did it for him. And miraculously, he saw himself ranking above hundreds of soldiers in the army.

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However, Ali, Commanding Officer of the 272 Task Force Tank Battalion, was killed when insurgents attacked the 119 Battalion of the Nigerian Army location in the Mallam Fatori area of Borno State. In November 2016, Ali was preparing for a raid on the Sambisa Forest when death cornered him.

“He was outside the tank; he was outside with his radio system. And because it was dark, nobody could exactly see the enemies who shot him,” a top military hospital told The Cable. “The firing came from behind. When these people (Boko Haram) came, he went in that direction to see what was happening. He was not in the tank.”

Sadly, Nigeria lost other great top military officers to the insurgents in 2016. The deaths caused a huge setback in the fight against terrorism that year, according to security experts.

In December 2016, Lieutenant-Colonel O. Umusu was murdered by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) planted by Boko Haram terrorists. Umusu, Commanding Officer of the 118 Task Force Battalion, was killed after he and his adjutants ran into the ambush around Damasak while travelling to Gudumbali, Borno State.

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That same year, the violent sect killed Lieutenant-Colonel K. Yusuf and Colonel B.U. Umar few weeks before Ali’s death was announced.

2018

Yet another heroic foot soldier, Ibrahim Sakaba, a lieutenant-colonel, was murdered by the rampaging terrorists in November 2018. Sakaba died when the terrorists attacked a military base in northern Borno, killing over a hundred soldiers.

He was hailed for his bravery in the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency. He was the leader of the Nigerian Army 157 Task Force Battalion in Metele.

When the Nigerian government announced that over 1000 repentant terrorists had been forgiven, Oluwaseun, Sakaba’s wife, was provoked, especially when the Army paraded the terrorists with pictures of placards held by the new converts carrying various inscriptions.

“It will never be well with all of you; I should forgive them for making me a young widow,” the bereaved woman said. “I should forgive them for killing my husband, his brother, and his mom. I should forgive them for making me seek shelter in another country. I should forgive them for making many women widows and kids fatherless.”

2020

On September 21, 2020, Colonel Dahiru Chiroma Bako was ambushed by Boko Haram militants on the outskirts of Wajiroko village and died after sustaining serious injuries. He had gone through surgery at the 7 Division Military Hospital but did not survive.

The leader of the 25 Taskforce Operation Lafiya Dole in Damboa was buried the following day at the Maimalari Military Cemetery in Maiduguri.

Tukur Buratai, the then Chief of Army Staff, described him as a fighter who “gave everything for the unity and peace of the nation.”

“As we mourn and continue to remember him, we are not going to leave his family and children after this moment,” Buratai said, after donating N20 million to the family. “But the Army is going to take up the scholarship for the children he left behind and will ensure they have a good life even after the demise of their father.”