Many soldiers who were earlier dismissed from the Nigerian
Army for refusing to fight have been recalled and are currently being screened
at the Jaji military cantonment in Kaduna State, Daily Trust gathered
yesterday.
While some soldiers were sentenced to death, others were
dismissed by military court martials for their refusal to fight Boko Haram
militants. But the soldiers said they were not provided the right combat
equipment to fight the terrorists.
Daily Trust gathered in Kaduna that the screening, which is
going on at the outskirts of the cantonment, is housing over 3,000 soldiers
awaiting determination by a committee from the army headquarters.
“The soldiers are all
there in Jaji cantonment awaiting their turns to be screened by the committee
and whoever scales through might be recalled. It was their prayer that if
General Muhammadu Buhari becomes president, he might recall them. These
soldiers are trained and it is very dangerous and wasteful if the federal
government terminates their employments,” the source said.
One of the soldiers who pleaded anonymity, insisted that the
army authorities refused to provide adequate arms and ammunition to fight the
insurgents.
“I am a corporal and I have served in the Nigerian Army for
the past 28 years, I have served in Bama and Baga, what I saw there was a very
bad situation, we were sent there to fight insurgents without weapons and
ammunition, can you imagine, a small boy of 15 to 18 years will pursue a
soldier and the soldier would run away simply because he does not have the
machines that the boy has, only for the army authorities to say they were
dismissing us because we refused to fight Boko Haram.
“Nigerian soldiers are among the best around the world, the
only problem we have is that they are not equipped with the equipment needed to
combat the terrorists but we have the means and resources to do that”, he
added.
Efforts to get the reaction of the army authorities before
press time were futile.
AFP
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