BRIGADIER GENERAL MOHAMMED UBA: The Day Nigeria Lied While a General Died

He almost made it.

Brigadier General Mohammed Uba, one of the highest-ranking officers still daring to move on these cursed roads, escaped the ambush.

Bloodied, breathless, he crawled into the bush, pulled out a phone, and made frantic calls: “I’m alive. Send help.”

Then the line went dead.ISWAP hunters tracked him down like a wounded animal. Hours later, they slit his throat, filmed it, and uploaded the footage with the caption that will haunt the Nigerian Army forever: “We have slaughtered the brigadier.”

Four days earlier, the same terrorists had ambushed his convoy. Four soldiers died on the spot. The general was dragged away. The Army’s first reaction?

A statement that read like a bad joke: “Reports of the abduction of Brig Gen Uba are false. The senior officer returned safely to base.” He never did.

While Defence Headquarters was typing lies, ISWAP was already negotiating with whoever inside the system sold the general’s escape route for a few million naira or a promise of paradise.

Retired generals have whispered it for years. Serving officers say it in beer parlours. Now a brigadier general’s corpse is the proof: there is a mole—or several—deep inside the Nigerian military feeding coordinates to men who pray before they behead.

This is not just another officer down. This is the highest-ranking Nigerian military officer ever captured and executed by jihadists in the 15-year insurgency.

From Major General Mohammed Shuwa (assassinated in his Maiduguri home in 2012) to countless colonels and majors lost in ambushes, the terrorists have been climbing the rank ladder with patience and precision. They finally reached the top shelf.

And Nigeria’s response? Deny. Delete. Delay.

Even when the video dropped, some spokesmen were still mumbling about “unverified footage.” The blood on the ground is verified.

The shame is verified.

The betrayal is verified. In barracks tonight, junior officers are asking the question no one dares answer out loud: If they can sell a brigadier general, who is safe?

Somewhere in Sambisa or the shores of Lake Chad, ISWAP fighters are celebrating. They didn’t just kill a man.

They killed the myth that rank still protects you in this war.