Second Mutiny In Maimalari Barracks, Soldiers Manhandle New Commandant
Category:
Boko Haram News
As reported by
SaharaReporters:
Brigadier General M.Y. Ibrahim, the newly posted General Officer Commanding the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army located at Maimalari Barracks, Maiduguri got a taste of soldiers’ fury on Thursday afternoon as angry soldiers stormed his office to demand that he pay their allowances and reinstate motorbikes to transport them and members of their families within the barrack.
Several sources in the barracks told SaharaReporters that the soldiers’
second act of mutiny in two weeks began around 3:00 p.m. (Nigerian time).
The angry soldiers blew a whistle, and most of the rank and file gathered at
a spot before they marched en masse to the 7th Division headquarters
building where the GOC’s office is located.
The sources said the sources shot in the air as they marched and
chanted “We no gree oh, we no gree!” Our sources said the protesting
soldiers were upset about the army’s failure to pay their outstanding
allowances. They were also annoyed by the decision of the newly posted GOC
to ban motorcycles as a form of transport within the barracks. The new GOC
reportedly banned motorbikes known as Okada and tricycles known as “Keke
NAPEP” from operating within the vast barracks. The soldiers wondered
why the new
commander would prohibit the use of the only affordable means of transport
they have when he knows full well that the base covers a huge area and that
few soldiers own cars or bike.
“If no okada [motorcycles] are allowed, then our small children have to walk to school and our wives will walk to market,” one of the soldiers told SaharaReporters. “Are we not suffering too much already?” he added.
“If no okada [motorcycles] are allowed, then our small children have to walk to school and our wives will walk to market,” one of the soldiers told SaharaReporters. “Are we not suffering too much already?” he added.
Once they arrived at the GOC’s office, the protesting soldiers decided to
give him a dose of the experience of navigating within the barracks without
motorcycles. They ordered Major General XYZ to come outside the building,
pushing and shoving him. Then they forced him to trek all through the
barracks.
The angry soldiers also demanded the payment of their N100, 000
furniture allowance which, according to them, was long overdue.
Last week, frustrated soldiers at the same barracks demonstrated and shot
at the car of their erstwhile GOC, Major General Ahmadu Mohammed. The
soldiers felt that General Mohammed’s operational orders were responsible
for the death of close to 100 soldiers who were returning from an operation
in Chibok, the town where members of the Islamist group, Boko Haram,
kidnapped 276 high schoolgirls near midnight on April 14. The abduction of
the girls, who remain missing, has sparked outrage in Nigeria and around the
world.
Military authorities in Abuja decided to remove Major General Mohammed a
day after the first mutiny.
One of the soldiers who spoke to SaharaReporters stated that he and his
colleagues want military authorities to be more focused in their approach to
the war against Boko Haram. “We can finish them [Boko Haram] without
difficulty, but the commanders don’t give us enough weapons for operations.
And they send only a few of us to fight hundreds of Boko Haram fighters,” he
said.
Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, has been the flashpoint of numerous
bloody attacks by Boko Haram.
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