Nigerian Army dismisses 200 soldiers!

The Nigeria Army on Tuesday at the Rukuba Barracks in Jos, Plateau State, dismissed about 200 soldiers from service for their failure to capture the Sambisa forest – a notorious hideout for Boko Haram terrorists in Borno State.

They were dismissed for laxity and cowardice in the course of duty.

One of the affected soldiers, Aguloye Sunday, an indigene of Ondo state, who confirmed the dismissal to journalists in Jos, said they were arraigned on a two-count charge over “failure to perform military duty and disobedience to standing order.”

He however said the charges pressed against him and his colleagues were “untrue, false and malicious,” and said they would seek redress in court.

Mr. Sunday denied the claim by the army authorities that the soldiers abandoned their duties and ran away, explaining that sufficient weapons were not provided for them to fight the terrorists and therefore they soon ran out of weapons.

He also said the weapons provided for the troops were obsolete.

“The bombs given to us were made since 1964 they were expired, so we could not use them,” he said.

“Each of us were given five bullets, not five rounds to fire, while in the forest, our biggest weapon was to cover just a distance on 400 meters, but our enemy had aircraft weapons that could cover a distance of more than 1000 meters with other dangerous weapons.

“We only retreated to our base, waiting for ammunition for three days in vain.”

Mr. Sunday explained that the soldiers were earlier imprisoned for 28 days with hard labour by one Lt. Colonel Gambo, before a general court martial was set up by the Nigerian army to try them.

He added that Mr. Gambo had also been ordered into the guardroom – a military cell- for issuing mild sanctions against the soldiers.

He said, “As we speak, Lt Colonel Gambo was yesterday kept in a guardroom at the officers mess, because he sentenced us to just Imprisonment and Hard Labour, we had served the punishment for a week before the dismissal order; some of our senior men were demoted before the dismissal,” the soldier said.

Mr. Sunday said since November 13, 2014, when authorities withdrew him and the other soldiers them from the notorious forest, they had been subjected to untold hardship.