Nigeria Govt Cancels US Counter terrorism Training For Nigeria Forces

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014

Oyewale Oyelola

The United States has cancelled the counter training of a battalion of the Nigeria Army on the request of the Federal Government.

This was contained in a statement made available to journalists by the Information Office of the United States Embassy in Abuja on Monday.

The statement reads, “At the request of the Nigerian government, the United States will discontinue its training of a Nigerian Army battalion. The first two phases of training were conducted between April and August 2014, and had provided previously untrained civilian personnel with basic soldiering skills.

“Based on mutual assessment of the Nigerian Army and U.S. trainers, a third iteration of training was agreed upon with the intent of developing the battalion into a unit with advanced infantry skills.

“We regret the premature termination of this training, as it was to be the first in a larger planned project that would have trained additional units with the goal of helping the Nigerian Army build capacity to counter Boko Haram.”

AFRICAN EXAMINER correspondent learnt the premature cancellation of the training was not unconnected with refusal of US to sell military weapons to Nigeria.

Our correspondent gathered the federal government has however approach Russia to procure military weapons to tackle the insecurity in the country.