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 said that the soldiers’ second act of
mutiny in two weeks began around 3:00 p.m. 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 soldiers 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,” according to one of the soldiers. “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 said 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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