Army transfers senior officers, to dismiss more soldiers

Authorities of the Nigerian Army
have redeployed the Acting
General Officer Commanding, 7th
Infantry Division, Maiduguri, Maj.-
Gen Mohammed Ibrahim.
Until his redeployment, Ibrahim
presided over the various battles
fought against Boko Haram
insurgents in the North-East.
The authorities may also take a
drastic decision to dismiss over
more soldiers in the ongoing
counter-terrorism operations in the
North East.
Ibrahim was appointed to take over
from his predecessor, Gen.
Abubakar Mohammed, following
the mutiny of soldiers in the
division in May, 2014.
The details of the posting are yet to
be made public.
President Goodluck Jonathan had
approved the creation of the 7th
Infantry Division to carry out
effective prosecution of the
campaign against the insurgents in
August, 2013.
Investigations by SUNDAY PUNCH
showed that the soldiers to be
dismissed, numbering about 2000,
constituted of the strength of four
battalions in the area.
They were said to be those on duty
when Boko Haram overran major
towns in Adamawa State in October,
2014.
The bulk of the soldiers are
expected to get their dismissal
letter this week.
It was learnt that the Army
authorities had pulled out the
soldiers and replaced them with
men from other formations to
prosecute the task of retaking the
towns captured by Boko Haram in
Adamawa.
The recaptured territories include
the commercial city of Mubi,
Michika, Madagali and Gulak.
The troops were said to have been
withdrawn and kept at the
headquarters of the 3 Division of
the Nigerian Army, Jos, where they
await the military’s decision on
them.
Although, the soldiers were paid
their salaries for the two months
while they remained in custody,
the authorities had decided to stop
their operational allowances.
A senior military personnel, who
spoke to our correspondent on the
condition of anonymity, stated on
Saturday that the Army authorities
were trying and dismissing the
affected soldiers on allegation of
cowardice.
The source also described the
reported protest by the 227
dismissed soldiers in Jos as an
attempt to blackmail the military
leadership to drop the decision
against them.
“I think Nigerians should allow the
military to clean up the system;
what they are doing is to blackmail
the military leadership but you
should know that the image of this
country is at stake.”
Each of the soldiers involved in the
ongoing counter-terrorism
operations receives N1000 per day
as operational allowance.
In a related development, SUNDAY
PUNCH also learnt that the military
authorities have commenced
deployment of newly acquired
attack helicopters in the North-East.
Some of the helicopters were
deployed for aerial surveillance
operations on Saturday in the
Borno axis of the North-East, where
most of the battles against the
Boko Haram have been fought.
Our correspondent could not get
the Director, Army Public Relations,
Brig. Gen Olajide Laleye, to
comment on the issues, as the calls
to his mobile telephone line did
not go through.
Also, Laleye had yet to respond to a
text message requesting his
response to the developments as
of the time of filing this report.

Those army soldier involved forgot they sworn to protect the country? Good for them