A cross section of Nigerian soldiers charged for mutiny and other offences during a court martial at the Abacha Barracks
More
than 277 soldiers arrested for various offences in the ongoing war
against insurgency by Boko Haram in the North-East are currently
languishing at the Maxwell Khobe cantonment, Rukuba Barracks detention
facility of the 3rd Armoured Division of the Nigerian Army in Jos,
Plateau State.
SUNDAY PUNCH gathered that the
soldiers were arrested at various times in the last six months in
Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, for various offences and are being
detained by the Military Police in the barracks.
Sources at the barracks told our
correspondent that the soldiers were being detained in dehumanising
condition without trial for the past six months.
It was gathered that some of the
soldiers had yet to know the offence for which they were arrested,
which, as a result, has made it difficult for the authorities to prefer
charges on them.
A relation of one of the detained
soldiers, who gave his name as Yakubu, told our correspondent that his
brother, a sergeant, had been in detention for six months with his
family unable to see him.
He said, “In fact, since he was
detained, no charges have been pressed on him and it is not certain when
he will be released. The Army authorities have also denied him access
to his family.”
In
his reaction, the Director of Army Public Relations, Maj.-Gen. Chris
Olukolade, who responded to an email sent to him, said administratively,
only the Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Texas Chukwu,
could respond to the report.
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