According to Sahararporters,soldiers who were being held in detention at a
cantonment in Jos, capital of Plateau State, as
they awaited court marshal have been re-posted
to their respective former barracks for
dismissal.
The soldiers, from 213 battalion, 234 battalion,
Army headquarters Team A and Task Force Mike,
were deployed at the Adamawa axis of Operation
Zamani Lafiya during a two-day attack by
Islamist insurgents on Mubi town, Adamawa
State on October 28 and 29. Military authorities
felt that the soldiers, numbering about 2,000,
had abandoned orders to fight. Our sources said
the soldiers’ respective commanding officers had
been instructed to dismiss them.
One of the dismissed soldiers, Bidemi Busari,
who is female, said that they were not given fair
hearing. She said she and other female soldiers
originally posted to 234 battalion in Mubi were
redeployed to the 23rd Brigade headquarters in
Yola, the capital of Adamawa. She added that
they were not part of the troops dislodged from
Mubi when Boko Haram insurgents attacked the
town on October 29, 2014. She wondered why
she had to be dismissed.
Another source quoted the commanding officer
(CO) of the 82 Infantry battalion, who dismissed
one of the soldiers, as stating that the dismissal
order came directly from the Chief of Army Staff
Lieutenant General Kenneth Minimah. The soldier
said the CO disclosed that he had orders to
dismiss all returning soldiers.
Another source said the garrison commander of
the 3rd Division dismissed close to 100 soldiers,
disclosing that he was acting on a “directive
from above.” One of the dismissed soldiers, Staff
Sergeant Richard Madyewula, said he was not
given any chance to explain himself during the
process. He said he was just declared guilty and
dismissed. In a statement he wrote and
submitted to Colonel A.O.D. Okoro, 3rd Division
military police commander, the staff sergeant
said he was deployed at Burnt Bricks, Mubi
(Bravo Company located at the 234th battalion
in Mubi, adding that he was not at the battalion
headquarters on the day of the insurgents’
assaults. “On 29th of Oct. 2014, I started hearing
sporadic gunshots which of course I [knew was]
a repel fire against approaching enemies. The
firing was heard from inside Mubi town, so my
officer-in-charge Major P.O. Mukoro immediately
moved with one platoon of soldiers in the only
available utility vehicle to beef up the strength of
soldiers deployed at the entrance of Mubi town
popularly known as “Welcome to Mubi”. On
reaching there he discovered that the insurgents
had blockaded the checkpoint and were already
exchanging fire inside the base camp (234
battalion headquarters). So he called me as the
most senior man in that location (Burnt Bricks)
and asked me to move the men to join up with
the battalion headquarters. Since we were
moving about 16 kilometers distance on foot, we
didn’t reach there before he called me again to
move the men to Mahia local government, that
the battalion headquarters in Mubi had been
over-run. All these instructions I followed strictly.
So I don’t know why the Army [would] charge
me with the statement offense [of disobedience]
to [a] particular order and dismiss me.”
SaharaReporters also learnt that the officers of
the affected four battalions were still being held
in the Officers’ Mess of Maxwell Khobe
Cantonment, Jos, uncertain of their fates.
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