Army to court-martial ‘Maiduguri mutineers’
Court-martial proceedings will start this weekend against soldiers who on Wednesday fired at the vehicle of their commander in Maiduguri, Borno State, TheCable has been informed.
Preliminary investigation has started mainly to identify the soldiers involved, the extent of their involvement and the next line of action.
They will most likely be dismissed and jailed – although those with little involvement may end up demoted.
According to military sources, the growing “disloyalty” and “indiscipline” on the Borno warfront have to be checked to prevent a breakdown of order.
“We want to send a strong message to would-be mutineers,” the source said, explaining that a similar breakdown in Mali almost led to the collapse of the country until French troops quickly moved in to salvage the situation.
Tourage rebels, working with al Qaeda, almost overran the country but for an international intervention led by France, who deployed ground troops for the operation.
The Malian army had become fractured by internal dissent and revolt.
Major-Gen. Ahmed Abdullahi, who was the General Officer Commanding the 7 Division in Maiduguri, escaped unhurt in the incident.
He has since been redeployed “for his own safety” because of the hostility of the soldiers.
The new GOC is Brigadier MY Ibrahim, who becomes the fourth commander since the creation of the 7 Division last year. Major-General Obida Ethan was first, before Major-Gen. Unsaid Bindawa and then Mohammed.
The soldiers have been complaining to local and foreign journalists about poor welfare, low morale, poor strategy, poor equipment and poor leadership.
Wednesday’s incident followed a forced overnight trip that some soldiers were made to take, which led to 12 deaths in the hands of Boko Haram who had laid an ambush for the troops.
The former GOC had instituted an inquiry himself but he was overruled from Abuja and a new inquiry was set up instead.
Meanwhile, defence spokesman Major-Gen. Chris Olukolade said in Maiduguri on Thursday that Major-Gen. Mohammed was not injured in the attack.
He told the media: “On May 13, our troops, who had been on an assignment in Chibok, were returning to Maiduguri when they were ambushed in Dalwa.
“One officer and five soldiers were killed, while a number of others were wounded.
“The GOC was touched by the incident. So, he wanted to sympathise with the troop by addressing those present.
“In the process, some soldiers became unruly and began to fire some shots into the air.
“The situation was quickly brought under control and normalcy restored as there was calm in the cantonment and normal operational activities are ongoing.”
From all indication from the presentation above; the question is: was the commander a good fields soldier? If yes, what's the psychological issues beforehand? So many pondering cases to these fields behaviour….
I do NOT agree with the Military Command for court-martialing any of the soldiers. Had the Commander taken his own responsibilities seriously there would have been no reason for mutiny.
The Army is an organization that has zero tolerance for indiscipline . The Nigerian Army has not recovered from the damage done to it by the indiscipline inherent in the rise if Yakubu Gowon to the headship of the Armed Forces after Brigadier Ogundipe ran away to the safety of London after the murder of Aguiyi Ironsi by Major Theophilus Danjuma. Ojukwu refused to recognise Gowon, who was also,his junior in the Army hierarchy, hence the descent to Biafra. We have still not learnt our lesson. Major Al Mustafa was commanding Three Star Generals under the Abacha regime. Indiscipline destroys everything, especially fighting forces.
The fish starts spoiling from the head. The court marshalling of the soldiers will make sense if all things were equal. We shouldn't be talking about military discipline without military responsibility to soldiers properly security. The officers owe them that.