This is just as the army has warned that it would not tolerate any act of indiscipline from its officers and soldiers, no matter the provocation, because the law and ethics that the Nigerian Army is founded on would take their full course on errant soldiers.
The army specifically warned that it would not tolerate any act of mutiny from soldiers engaged in counter-terrorism operations in the North-East.
Theatre commander in charge of Operation Lafiya Dole, Major-General Abbah Dikko, gave the warning during a lunch at the Maiduguri Military Command Centre over the weekend.
Dikko, who condemned the act of mutiny by the soldiers who took to protesting and shooting indiscriminately at the airport to protest their deployment to another local government area in the state, reminded the soldiers of their oath of recruitment when they voluntarily joined the service.
He noted that the oath must be respected and maintained, as long as they remain in the service of the Nigerian Army.
Dikko said, “You have decided to put your life on the line for the territorial integrity of Nigeria. So, it is very important that we are reminded of our roles and responsibilities to the nation and our responsibility to the society, most importantly our responsibility to ourselves because we are not a conscript army. We are a regular military.
While noting that the soldiers who protested at the Maiduguri Airport would be disciplined in accordance with military law, the theatre commander said, “We don’t punish in the military. We discipline. Discipline is the bedrock of the job. If there is no discipline, then we can’t have an army.”
The army’s reaction came in the wake of a protest and shooting in the air at the Maiduguri airport by soldiers of the Special Forces against their deployment from the state capital to Marte Local Government Area of the state. The aggrieved soldiers, who were said to have arrived the airport at about 6pm the day before their posting, refused to board the aircraft that was to convey them to their new operational area on the grounds that they had spent over four years in Maiduguri, without seeing their families.
