Lack Of Weapons:Nigerian Soldiers Refuse Orders To Fight Boko Haram In Borno


A group of soldiers in Maimalari Barracks, Borno State, have defied the military authorities, refusing to fight Boko Haram militants, saying that they would not fight with obsolete weapons.

A soldier who pleaded anonymity told the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that his colleagues numbering over 30 assembled their military vehicles along the Maiduguri-Bulabiri Road, complaining about lack of equipment to attack the Boko Haram sect.

“Our colleagues were ambushed last Monday by the sect and we have no weapons for counter-attack; soldiers are dying like fowl.

“The Nigerian Army is not ready to fight Boko Haram; soldiers were not being given enough weapons and ammunition to take them on.

“Not that we disobey them (senior commanders). Boko Haram are inside the bush, everywhere and the vehicles the soldiers were expected to use were old armoured cars that were not up to the job,” he said.

“There is war equipment in Maimalari barracks but the senior commanders deny us the weapons and we can’t attack Boko Haram in Alagarmo which is not more than 8 kilometres away from the barracks without weapons,” he added.

“We joined the army to defend our country, but you cannot defend it without being equipped to do so,” he said.

The Defence spokesman, Major-Gen. Chris Olukolade, told the BBC that they did not take the situation as mutiny because it is a serious offence in the military if confirmed.

“We can’t just fall into conclusion that any decision of this kind taken by military personnel is a mutiny because it is a punishable offence.”

But the chief of army staff (COAS), Lt General Kenneth Minimah, has warned that any soldier or officer involved in mutiny would be court-martialed and sentenced to death.

He added that the army had no room for rebels, stressing that punishment for soldiers and officers involved in mutiny remained the death sentence.

Minimah, who spoke yesterday in Enugu during his familiarisation tour of military units in 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, further warned that soldiers caught sabotaging the ongoing war against insurgents in the north-east would be seriously sanctioned. He said it was an offence for any soldier to sabotage the nation’s ongoing campaign to rid Nigeria of insurgency and terrorist elements.

Minimah said, “Of course, the issue of saboteurs which we experienced in the North-East where soldiers found it necessary to conspire, connive or colloborate with the terrorist elements, we are taking charge of that and very soon we will identify them and they will go through a field court marshal and executed in the theatre.”

He used the opportunity to warn the wives of soldiers in all the military formations in the country to desist from any form of protest against postings of their husbands to any part of the country to fight insurgents.

General Minimah insisted that soldiers’ wives have no right to carry out protest on behalf of their husbands because they were not enlisted into the army.

He stated that the authorities of the Nigerian Army would not hesitate to kick the wives of soldiers that would embark on any form of protest out of the barracks.

The COAS also disclosed that they had concluded plans to buy more arms and ammunition, assuring that they would arrive in the country, even as he expressed hope that Boko Haram would soon be defeated.

CKN NEWS

Chris Kehinde Nwandu is the Editor In Chief of CKNNEWS || He is a Law graduate and an Alumnus of Lagos State University, Lead City University Ibadan and Nigerian Institute Of Journalism || With over 2 decades practice in Journalism, PR and Advertising, he is a member of several Professional bodies within and outside Nigeria || Member: Institute Of Chartered Arbitrators ( UK ) || Member : Institute of Chartered Mediators And Conciliation || Member : Nigerian Institute Of Public Relations || Member : Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria || Fellow : Institute of Personality Development And Customer Relationship Management || Member and Chairman Board Of Trustees: Guild Of Professional Bloggers of Nigeria

4 Comments

  1. MAY GOD HELP US.THIS COUNTRY IS ALREADY UNDER SIEGE SOME PEOPLE ARE ALREADY IN THE BUSINESS OF OF SABOTAGING THIS COUNTRY MY OWN CONCERN IS THAT AFTER SELLING NIGERIA THEY SHOULD PLEASE KEEP CHANGE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

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  2. The military authority is quick to threaten "erring" soldiers with death sentebce. I wonder if they have considered the "punishment" by the boko haram on anyone who confrot them with obsolete weapon? Is there any difference really? Will the death sentence by the military authority not be more decent by the death by boko haram which may even be by slatching of throats??? Which is more gruesome? Which will be a better option by any right thinking mind? Or why was the COAS not able to fefute the excuse of obsolete weapons by the soldiers? I think the military authoriy should exhibit superior reasoning capability instead of resorting to threats of "depleting" its strenght. Nigerians are watching their activities o!

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  3. Jonathan and PDP are shameless deceivers ,when Borno state governor told Nigerians that Boko Haran are far mor mobilized than Nigerian Army , they almost arrested him . Now who is deceiving who?

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  4. This is true statement only God can judge

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