BY Fredrick Nwabufo
The Nigeria army on Thursday stopped journalists from covering the proceedings of the general court martial instituted to try 97 soldiers for various offences including mutiny.
The army said sensitive information being revealed at the proceedings could jeopardise ongoing operations in the northeast.
“You know there is military operation going on in the northeast,” Aliyu Yusuf, a colonel and public relations officer of the army garrison at Mogadishu Cantonment where the court martial is taking place, told TheCable.
“We do not want sensitive information from the court martial to affect the operations in that region.”
Before journalists were asked to leave the court, a witness called by the prosecuting counsel, Isah Sali, a captain, revealed that the 59 soldiers who mutinied were shouting, “We don’t want to go and die” when Timothy Opurum, the commanding officer and lieutenant-colonel, called them out for an operation on August 4.
On Wednesday, Opurum had stated that the soldiers simply refused to obey orders to participate in an operation to retake Delwa in Borno state.
However, counsel of the defence, Femi Falana, faulted his testimony, saying that the soldiers simply asked for weapons to fight.
Opurum admitted that his soldiers were overpowered by Boko Haram, owing to the “superior weapons and number of the terrorists”.
He also disclosed that he lost men and equipment in the battle to retake the town.
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