Soldiers Who Refused To Fight Boko Haram Sentenced

No fewer than fifteen soldiers who refused orders to report at the war front in Adamawa State have faced a court-martial and have been sentenced to four year jail terms.
The sentencing of the officers, who had been in detention for over three weeks, was done on Wednesday, 18 September, at the 23rd Armoured Brigade, in Yola by the military command.

The men were found guilty of insubordination and refusal to face the Boko Haram insurgents in the northern parts of the state.

A military source disclosed that the affected soldiers were those who ran away when Boko Haram attacked their duty posts and fled back to the cantonment.

The source said: “The soldiers had allegedly refused the orders of their superiors to draft back to the theatre of war. In the military tradition, a soldier is expected to obey the last order but the 15 soldiers convicted by the military command were adjudged to have committed acts of insubordination by their refusal to draft to the warfront.”

“The military has been grappling with soldiers deserting from their tour of duty only to re-surface with all manner of tales, and the development is gradually beginning to impugn on the integrity of the military establishment,” he added. 

The court-martial and subsequent sentencing of the soldiers comes two days after 12 soldiers were sentenced to death by firing squad after they staged a mutiny and attacked the GOC, 3 Division in Maiduguri, Borno State.