REVEALED: Why Soldiers Carried Out Mutiny In Maiduguri

A new Acting General Officer Commanding, GOC, has been appointed for the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, Maiduguri, Borno State, following the Mutiny carried out by soldiers on the former GOC.  The current GOC General M. Y. Ibrahim, who has
taken over from Major General Ahmed Mohammed, was appointed just after the former GOC was attacked by the soldiers under his command last Thursday in Maiduguri.

According to the DDI, General Olukolade, the former GOC has now been redeployed on orders of the headquarters and information has been gathered on the cause of the attack.

It has been revealed that the soldiers who attacked their former GOC were aggrieved over the high number of casualties that have been recorded in their camp following two incidences of ambush - one on a set of soldiers at Ganda Musa and the second at Dalwa area on a group of soldiers who were returning from Chibok.

The soldiers who were ambushed at Dalwa had asked for permission to spend the night in a friendly village which was considered safe on the day of the attack, but the former GOC had blankly refused their request insisting that they make the trip back to the headquarters that night.

It was therefore in attempts to follow the instructions of the former GOC that some of the soldiers lost their lives as only few of them survived the ambush; one of the soldiers who lost his life in the attack was set to wed in October this year, after having done his traditional marriage earlier.

Military sources also revealed to newsmen that  before the latest attack, troops from same Divison had suffered another agonising incident when they lost another set of officers following alleged insensitivity of their Brigade Commander (names withheld).

The said Brigade Commander reportedly ordered the Commanding Officer, CO, in the area to carry out an operation at Ganda Musa, despite objections from the CO that the ill-fated operation required several days of planning.

According to sources, the soldiers had decided to carry out the attack on the former GOC out of anger and emotions that were fueled by the easily avoidable high number of casualties they had suffered in the course of obeying his instructions.

When reached on telephone regarding the incident, Maj. General Olukolade said, ‘’I do not know of it. You should be wary of this type of information. It is the duty of a courageous Commander to say his troops should get moving even if they are dying.’’