The Nigeria government has cancelled its counter-terrorism military training programme with the United States of America.
Abuja had earlier accused the Obama administration of frustrating its efforts to procure arms for its counter-terrorism war in the northeast states with the Boko Haram insurgents.
Earlier, Nigeria entered into agreement with the US for the training of a battalion of the Nigeria Army as part of Washington assistance on the counter-terrorism war but has since cited human right violations as reasons for less cooperation.
A statement made available to journalists by the Information Office of the United States Embassy in Abuja on Monday said the US cancelled the agreement at the request of the Nigerian government.
“At the request of the Nigerian government, the United States will discontinue its training of a Nigerian Army battalion,” it sad.
Adding that, “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.”
Only recently, Nigeria also cited US lack of cooperation as reason for going to South Africa to buy weapons when the deal became public following interception of N9 billion cash meant for the purchase by the country’s immigration.
Sources said the federal government has approach Russia to procure military weapons to tackle the insecurity in the country.
