A former Nigerian soldier has come forward with troubling claims that he was dismissed from the army after simply raising his hand to ask a question during a debriefing following a deadly Boko Haram ambush in Baga, Borno State.
In a detailed account, the ex-serviceman said the incident occurred after an attack that killed 117 of his colleagues. While gathered with other survivors at a concentration area in Gubiyo, their brigade commander addressed the troops and opened the floor for questions.
“I raised my hand, same thing did some other soldiers,” he recalled. “He now asked me to come out. As I come out, expecting to ask the question, I was disarmed and taken to a containment, where I was like chained and handcuffed.”
After ten days in detention, he was informed by his commanding officer that he was being charged with disobedience to a particular order. When he reminded the officer that the commander had invited questions, he was told, “his hands are tied, that there is nothing he can do.”
The soldier, who joined the army at age 18 in 2003, stated he had served in multiple operations across four regions and was part of the 118th Task Force Battalion in Maiduguri. He alleged that the same general, whom he named as General Jamilo Sarham, dismissed over 300 soldiers from the 118th and 157th Task Force Battalions in the Maiduguri and Baga axis.
Since his dismissal, he says he has been writing appeals for years without redress. His family has suffered deeply, with his children out of school and himself without a stable home. “I don't have home. It's just any way I see I squat, so as to make a living,” he said.
The account raises serious questions about disciplinary procedures and the treatment of soldiers within the counter-insurgency operation in the Northeast. The former soldier maintains that his only “offense” was attempting to seek clarity after a traumatic combat experience that claimed the lives of more than a hundred of his comrades.
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