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Soldiers protest in Jos, workers rage against research council

By Ezeocha Nzeh (Abuja) and Isa Abdulsalami Ahovi (Jos)
02 June 2015   |   4:36 am
TWENTY-FIVE of the 210 soldiers dismissed from the Third Armoured Division, Jos have protested against their dismissal at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Secretariat, Plateau State Council. The soldiers said that having visited the war zones of Sambisa Forest, Baga and many other areas to confront the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents, they were deceived…
Kano-state, Nigeria. iamge source informafrica

Kano-state, Nigeria. iamge source informafrica

TWENTY-FIVE of the 210 soldiers dismissed from the Third Armoured Division, Jos have protested against their dismissal at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Secretariat, Plateau State Council.

The soldiers said that having visited the war zones of Sambisa Forest, Baga and many other areas to confront the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents, they were deceived in believing that they needed replacement having spent their mandatory six months only to face a disciplinary committee headed by one Lt.-Col. Gambo where the two charges were read to them but they vehemently refused to admit as charged, describing them as frivolous and malicious and that they were not guilty at all.

Speaking with journalists yesterday at the NUJ Secretariat in Jos, the spokesman of the dismissed soldiers, Private Agunloye Sunday, who claimed they were framed up with a two-count flimsy charges of refusal to perform military duty and failure to obey orders from their commanders, said he would address journalists on behalf of his colleagues on the condition that their photographs would not taken and journalists agreed to that term.

He said that they passed out from their military training in 2013 where they were taken to Cassia Military Base in Kaduna State from where they were taken to Maiduguri, the then headquarters of Boko Haram.

Agunloye said that the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Kenneth Minimah, promised them up-to-date sophisticated weapons that they would use in fighting the terrorists in the bush.

According to him: “They did not see anything apart from two water tankers where they were just dropped at the Mubi in Adamawa from there to Lassa armed with old-fashioned equipment where they were able to capture some villages in Maiduguri from the insurgents.

The soldiers, who were looking hungry and demoralised, appealed earnestly to the Defence Headquarters to come to their aid and temper justice with mercy.

However, a source at the Third Division told The Guardian that the dismissal of the soldiers was the outcome of the court-martial they underwent, adding that they have been staying in the barracks all this while.

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