Leon Lotz, his wife, Almari, and their son, Leon Jr. Lotz sr killed this week in the fight against Boko Haram killed.

Senior military commanders have described stories in major international media and culled by local newspapers reporting that Nigeria is deploying hundreds of mercenaries against Boko Haram terrorists as a joke taken too far.

The officers insisted that the foreigners are technical advisers that are providing trainings and instructions on the use of new armaments recently procured by the Nigerian military in the war on terror.

Some top commanders who spoke insist that it is part of propaganda to paint Nigerian military as incompetent to deal with the insurgency by desperately ascribing recent spate of successes to ‘others’ rather than the gallant troops’ efforts.

The source recalled that only recently, some news agencies ascribed such successes to Cameroonian, Nigerien and “battle hardened” Chadian forces but when it became obvious that the forces of those countries were mainly fighting along their own border areas blocking free movement of terrorists, “it became necessary to look for others” who are helping Nigerians to fight.

It was gathered that the foreigners spotted in Maiduguri and other areas close to the theater of wars are technical partners who are helping to train Nigerian forces on how to operate and maintain the recently acquired equipments which came from different sources.

Click to read more on the South African mercenary a former Koevoet officer Leon Lotz, killed as his  wife, Almari, was quoted as Saying that her husband “was with some of his brothers-in-arms who have walked a path with him for many years”.