Angry soldiers open fire on GOC’s vehicle in Maiduguri

The General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division, Nigerian Army, Major General Ahmadu Mohammed, yesterday, escaped death as angry soldiers opened fire on his official vehicle when he came to address them at the Maimalari Barracks in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

Conflicting reports said the soldiers rebelled when they were forced to return to Maiduguri from Chibok as they considered it unsafe. The soldiers argued that it was dark and dangerous to return to Maiduguri that night.

They therefore requested the GOC to allow them spend the night in one of the villages considered to be safe for them, but the GOC insisted that they must return the same night and report to Maiduguri.

Another source said the soldiers went on an operation in Kala Balge council area of the state but they were instructed to withdraw from the assignment and return to Maiduguri immediately. The source said on their way back, they were ambushed leading to the death of some soldiers.

According to the source: “The troops arrived with the corpses of the slain soldiers to Maimalari barracks while the GOC was addressing some troops on the ongoing operation against the insurgency. But when the soldiers sighted the corpses of their deceased colleagues, and learnt about how they died, they condemned the way their superior officers allegedly treated them in the course of the operation, and therefore started shooting sporadically, while others opened fire on the GOC’s vehicle as he narrowly escaped from the scene”.

According to the source, “what angered the soldiers most, was the unnecessary deduction of their allowances and subjecting them to harsh working conditions without proper equipment to carry out their duties and as a result, many of them were being killed like rats by the insurgents”.

According to BBC Hausa service, “the Defence spokesman, Major General Chris Olukolade who was called on phone could not answer, but a text message was sent to him and he later replied that, “it was an internal affair which has since been resolved”.

Meanwhile, the Defence Headquarters has set up an enquiry into the incident. A statement issued later, yesterday, from the Joint Information Centre of the Counter Terrorism Campaign and signed by Major General Chris Olukolade said: “The 7 Division of the Nigerian Army is to institute a military board of inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the conduct of soldiers who fired some shots today (yesterday) while the General Officer Commanding was addressing troops in Maimalari Cantonment, Maiduguri.

“The incident occurred when the corpses of four soldiers who died in an ambush while returning from patrol duties in Chibok were being conveyed to the morgue. There is calm in the cantonment and all normal operations activities are ongoing''.