BH: 8 soldiers arrested over north east deployment protest
- Eight soldiers arrested by Nigerian Army.
- The eight have been accused of giving information to the media about the refusal of soldiers to be deployed to the Northeast.
- The accused soldiers have been transported to the Abuja for further questions.
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Eight soldiers suspected of giving information to the media about the refusal of soldiers to be deployed to the Northeast have been arrested by the Nigerian Army, a report on icirnigeria.org shows.
This comes on the heels of a report on Vanguard on January 8, that more than 3,000 soldiers, who were dismissed for various offences but were recently pardoned, had protested their deployment back to the warfront, which was denied by the Nigerian Army.
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“The Nigerian Army thrives on discipline, loyalty and good conduct and if anyone of them cannot measure up to expectation or live by those tenets, such a person is free to leave the army,” army spokesperson, Sani Usman, a Colonel, said.
However, it was gathered that a day after the story broke, army authorities dispatched a very senior officer, a Major General, to the Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna state, who ordered the arrest and detention of the eight suspects in Military Police guardroom following their interrogation.
On how the Army determined that the eight arrested were culpable, this details has been kept away from the media.
According to icirnigeria.org, a defence source, on the condition of anonymity disclosed that the eight soldiers were transported to the Abuja where they were further questioned for their role in getting the information to the media. It was also learnt that the Provost Marshal is billed to address all the pardoned soldiers in Jaji later today, January 26.
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Information on the Soldiers’ arrest had emanated after reports made its way to the media that 350 out of over 3,000 soldiers were last Saturday, January 23, deployed to the Northeast. Out of this number, 200 were deployed in Yobe state while the remaining 150 went to Buratai, hometown of Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, following an attack last week by Boko Haram insurgents. The army spokesperson Col Sani Usman is however yet to respond to this development.
Legit.ng recalls that the Nigerian military continues to face disciplinary problems affecting every rank in the armed forces.
Soldiers and the officers leading them have sometimes refused to go into battle with Boko Haram insurgents, in some cases deciding to mutiny instead, like the 54 condemned to the firing squad in December 2014 after the May 2014 incident which saw the General Officer Commanding, GOC, 7 Division, Nigerian Army, Ahmadu Mohammed, a Major General, shot at by angry soldiers who blamed him for leading them into an ambush that led to the death of their colleagues.
They were charged with offences ranging from conspiracy, attempted murder to disobedience to particular orders, leading to the dismissal of some while others were sentenced to death by firing squad.
However, following the election of President Muhammadu Buhari, there were pleas for a review of the soldiers’ cases, as many of them claimed they were not given fair trials.
In August 2015, after the review of the cases, over 3000 pardoned soldiers were asked to report to Jaji for screening and retraining. Also, in December, the military authorities commuted the death sentences of 66 soldiers to life imprisonment.
Source: Legit.ng
