Mass Sacking: Panic Grips Nigerian Army Barracks
Published on Sunday, 18 January 2015 05:01
Nigerian Sunday Trust
Written by Lawan Danjuma Adamu
Anxiety has heightened among military personnel and their families in barracks across the country as the Nigerian Army continued with the mass purge of soldiers it accused of disobeying orders to fight insurgents during their deployment in the North-East.
Military authorities last Friday dismissed five more soldiers from the Supply and Transport unit of the 2 Division headquarters in Ibadan, Sunday Trust gathered.
This followed the dismissal of 227 soldiers last Tuesday by the headquarters of 3 Division in Jos and the sack of another four in Lokoja, a day earlier.
Over 200 had also been expelled in Benin in December. The affected soldiers said they were accused of refusing to fight Boko Haram gunmen in parts of Adamawa and Borno states.
The troops, however, denied the charges, blaming the military for not providing them with weapons and equipment to defeat the insurgents.
Sources said last Tuesday five battalions, comprising 234 Battalion, 116 Battalion, Task Force Mike, Army Headquarters Team A and 213 Battalion would be affected by the mass sack. All the units were under the task force Operation Zaman Lafiya, to check insurgency in the North-East.
But army authorities have consistently denied that soldiers were being sacked for refusing to fight Boko Haram.
The Army headquarters had issued a directive to formations to disengage almost 3000 soldiers and officers for allegedly failing to stop Boko Haram from taking over Mubi or retaking it from them, sources said.
Apart from the five soldiers that were given the boot in Ibadan on Friday, five others were tried and awaiting verdict, a soldier told Sunday Trust. “They escorted them to their houses in the barracks to have them remove their belongings, before they were evicted,” he said of the sacked troops, adding, “five others would be sentenced on Monday.”
The military personnel also disclosed that two Army Warrant Officers (AMOs) had been tried and dismissed at the divisional headquarters, earlier in the week.
“The two senior non-commissioned officers were serving in the same battalion as the over 200 soldiers that were dismissed in Benin in December for allegedly disobeying orders. But because they were of superior ranks, the battalion does not have power to try them. That is why they were tried and dismissed at division level,” he said.
Officers from the battalions would be tried and dismissed by military court martial, source said, explaining that over 60 officers from the five battalions were being kept in Jos, pending their arraignment before a military court.
The development, our correspondent gathered, was causing panic among officers and soldiers nationwide.
In Kaduna State, about 450 soldiers of 116 Battalion (also known as 21 Support Battalion) in NDA Barracks are said to be living in fear, as their units await the directive to send them packing.
“Everyone here is worried about the development and we are afraid because other units in various divisions have already dismissed their men,” a soldier said.
In Sokoto, over 60 soldiers of 26 Battalion who were attached to a unit that was dislodged from Mubi have been in intense prayers. “Their salaries have been withheld for over four months and some of them are in detention. With the news of mass sack of soldiers in other units elsewhere, there is growing fear that their days in the army are coming to an end,” a military officer said.
Similar fears are also being expressed in 192 Battalion in Owode Idoroko in Ogun State, where Sunday Trust that about eight soldiers, “all of them seniors and veterans” would be affected. “They are soldiers who fought in Sierra Leone and Liberia and went to the North-East twice to fight Boko Haram,” a source said.
About 50 soldiers from 3 Brigade headquarters in Kano, as well as battalions under it in Kano and Katsina would also be given the boot, a rising tension among the troops and their families.
“They have sacked our colleagues in other units and we know that the directive affects us too. We learnt that it is 1 Division in Kaduna that is foot-dragging on it, trying to see that we are not sacked,” he said.
On Friday, the 227 soldiers that were dismissed in Jos, staged a protest at the Plateau State secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene and reinstate them.
But the Deputy Director of Army Public Relations of the 3 Division Jos, Colonel Texas Chukwu, denied knowledge of the sack.
When the Army spokesman, Brigadier General Olajide Olaleye, was contacted over the dismissal of soldiers in Jos, he denied it. “It is not true,” he said. He did not respond to a subsequent text message detailing military units and soldiers to be dismissed.
Nigerian Sunday Trust
Written by Lawan Danjuma Adamu
Anxiety has heightened among military personnel and their families in barracks across the country as the Nigerian Army continued with the mass purge of soldiers it accused of disobeying orders to fight insurgents during their deployment in the North-East.
Military authorities last Friday dismissed five more soldiers from the Supply and Transport unit of the 2 Division headquarters in Ibadan, Sunday Trust gathered.
This followed the dismissal of 227 soldiers last Tuesday by the headquarters of 3 Division in Jos and the sack of another four in Lokoja, a day earlier.
Over 200 had also been expelled in Benin in December. The affected soldiers said they were accused of refusing to fight Boko Haram gunmen in parts of Adamawa and Borno states.
The troops, however, denied the charges, blaming the military for not providing them with weapons and equipment to defeat the insurgents.
Sources said last Tuesday five battalions, comprising 234 Battalion, 116 Battalion, Task Force Mike, Army Headquarters Team A and 213 Battalion would be affected by the mass sack. All the units were under the task force Operation Zaman Lafiya, to check insurgency in the North-East.
But army authorities have consistently denied that soldiers were being sacked for refusing to fight Boko Haram.
The Army headquarters had issued a directive to formations to disengage almost 3000 soldiers and officers for allegedly failing to stop Boko Haram from taking over Mubi or retaking it from them, sources said.
Apart from the five soldiers that were given the boot in Ibadan on Friday, five others were tried and awaiting verdict, a soldier told Sunday Trust. “They escorted them to their houses in the barracks to have them remove their belongings, before they were evicted,” he said of the sacked troops, adding, “five others would be sentenced on Monday.”
The military personnel also disclosed that two Army Warrant Officers (AMOs) had been tried and dismissed at the divisional headquarters, earlier in the week.
“The two senior non-commissioned officers were serving in the same battalion as the over 200 soldiers that were dismissed in Benin in December for allegedly disobeying orders. But because they were of superior ranks, the battalion does not have power to try them. That is why they were tried and dismissed at division level,” he said.
Officers from the battalions would be tried and dismissed by military court martial, source said, explaining that over 60 officers from the five battalions were being kept in Jos, pending their arraignment before a military court.
The development, our correspondent gathered, was causing panic among officers and soldiers nationwide.
In Kaduna State, about 450 soldiers of 116 Battalion (also known as 21 Support Battalion) in NDA Barracks are said to be living in fear, as their units await the directive to send them packing.
“Everyone here is worried about the development and we are afraid because other units in various divisions have already dismissed their men,” a soldier said.
In Sokoto, over 60 soldiers of 26 Battalion who were attached to a unit that was dislodged from Mubi have been in intense prayers. “Their salaries have been withheld for over four months and some of them are in detention. With the news of mass sack of soldiers in other units elsewhere, there is growing fear that their days in the army are coming to an end,” a military officer said.
Similar fears are also being expressed in 192 Battalion in Owode Idoroko in Ogun State, where Sunday Trust that about eight soldiers, “all of them seniors and veterans” would be affected. “They are soldiers who fought in Sierra Leone and Liberia and went to the North-East twice to fight Boko Haram,” a source said.
About 50 soldiers from 3 Brigade headquarters in Kano, as well as battalions under it in Kano and Katsina would also be given the boot, a rising tension among the troops and their families.
“They have sacked our colleagues in other units and we know that the directive affects us too. We learnt that it is 1 Division in Kaduna that is foot-dragging on it, trying to see that we are not sacked,” he said.
On Friday, the 227 soldiers that were dismissed in Jos, staged a protest at the Plateau State secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene and reinstate them.
But the Deputy Director of Army Public Relations of the 3 Division Jos, Colonel Texas Chukwu, denied knowledge of the sack.
When the Army spokesman, Brigadier General Olajide Olaleye, was contacted over the dismissal of soldiers in Jos, he denied it. “It is not true,” he said. He did not respond to a subsequent text message detailing military units and soldiers to be dismissed.
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