Nigerian Army sentences 12 of its men to death over mutiny in a
move believed to be aimed at enforcing discipline among the troops. But
analysts insist that the root causes of the revolt of the condemned men
must be properly addressed for Nigeria to win the war against terror
Even as the Nigerian armed forces continue the struggle to contain
the Boko Haram insurgency, the sentencing of 12 soldiers to death for
mutiny by a military court martial in the early hours of last Tuesday is
epochal in the battle to defeat the terrorists. Aside the issue of the
constitutionality or otherwise of the death sentence being raised by
lawyers, there is the question of the effect the judgment would have on
colleagues of the condemned soldiers currently occupied with the arduous
task of halting attempts by the terrorists to create a caliphate out of
Nigeria. This is even more so when it is considered that at the root of
the alleged mutiny for which the 12 soldiers have been condemned to
face the firing squad were the still unending complaints of poor
equipment, poor welfare and corruption blamed for the prolonged
inability to defeat Boko Haram.
•The condemned soldiers
The soldiers, serving in the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army,
Maiduguri, Borno State, specially created to battle the Boko Haram
insurgents, had run into problems on 14 May when they fired shots at the
convoy conveying their General Officer Commanding, Major General Ahmed
Mohammmed, as it tried to enter their cantonment. Though the GOC escaped
unhurt due to the ability of his driver to dexterously steer his
vehicle away from the angry soldiers, some of his bodyguards were not
lucky and suffered gunshot wounds. The immediate reason for the anger of
the soldiers, reports had indicated, was the death of scores of their
colleagues in an ambush the previous night. Indeed, it was learnt that
the arrival of the GOC to the barrack coincided with the arrival of the
corpses of the soldiers killed in the ambush. The soldiers were
allegedly angry because they thought they could have avoided the Boko
Haram ambush and consequently, the deaths of their colleagues, if the
GOC had not asked the troops to return overnight from their area of
operation. The troops also suspected that the directive to return
overnight followed a pattern in which they were being deliberately led
to die through wrong tactical orders dished out by officers who they
believed are not committed to the war against terror for some
sentimental reasons.
•Falana: Army Council to look into reasons for the mutiny
But,
it was gathered, even before the ambush, soldiers at the division had
been complaining about welfare issues such as delayed payment of
allowances, poor equipment and insufficient ammunition before the visit
of the GOC. The morale of the soldiers who were at the forefront of the
fight against insurgents was especially at the lowest ebb at the time of
the incident because of continuous loss of their colleagues during
confrontation with the insurgents as a result of inadequate ammunition
and poor equipment. The soldiers of the division were also said to be
angry at their leaders because there had not been troop rotation since
their deployment to the North- East to fight Boko Haram. Though the
media had appropriately tagged the behaviour of the soldiers a mutiny
when the event occurred, Major General Chris Olukolade, Director of
Defence Information, had denied there was any form of mutiny in the
division.
Source: http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng
