4,000 Nigerian Soldiers to be Sacked Over Poor Handling of Boko Haram Insurgency

About 4,000 Nigerian soldiers will be dismissed soon, one of the allegedly affected soldiers has told TheCable. 

 

The said soldiers are accused of flouting orders to fight Boko Haram insurgents in an operation in Mubi, Adamawa state, in 2014. 

 

Tension appears to be simmering as soldiers in the northeast, and their families are in suppressed agitation over the possibility of being axed. 

 

According to a source in the army, who is one of the accused soldiers, a signal had been sent by the army headquarters in Abuja to its divisions for the soldiers to be dismissed without trial. 

 

“We are accused of disobeying orders to fight insurgents and also for allowing them to takeover Mubi town the last time. The army headquarters sent signal for our dismissal,” he said. 

 

He explained that the army divisions involved – of those who allegedly failed to participate in the Mubi operation – were from the second division, Ibadan, made up of 200 soldiers; first division, Kaduna, which has about 500 soldiers, and “some from the third division, Jos, among others”. 

 

The source also revealed that about 227 soldiers from the third division, Jos, had been dismissed already, just as four other soldiers from the Lokoja division. “We are now facing a fresh allegation of supporting General Buhari during the last election. 

 

We have also been accused of celebrating Buhari’s victory,” he said. He appealed to the authorities to intervene in the matter and save their jobs. However, Sani Usman, a colonel and army spokesman, dismissed the report has false. “I am not aware where you got the information from, and I am sure there is no such plan,” he said. “How can the army sack people like that? 

 

There is a standard operational procedure if anybody is accused of anything. First and foremost, the person has to be charged and tried before a sentence will be passed. “To the best of my knowledge, there is no such thing. I do not know where you got the number. Four thousand soldiers? For what?”
Source: TheCable