Another Mutiny In Maimalari Barracks, As The Angry Soldiers Manhandle New Commander

Brigadier General M.Y. Ibrahim, the newly posted General Officer Commanding the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army located at Maimalari Barracks in Maiduguri got a taste of the soldiers’ fury on Thursday afternoon as some angry soldiers stormed his office to demand that he pay their allowances and reinstate motorbikes to transport them and members of their families within the barrack. One of the soldiers who spoke to Sahara Reporters stated that he and his colleagues want military authorities to be more focused in their approach to the war against Boko Haram. “ We can finish them [Boko Haram] without difficulty, but the commanders don’t give us enough weapons for operations . And they send only a few of us to fight hundreds of Boko Haram fighters,” he said. “We no go gree oh, we no go gree!” Sources said the protesting soldiers were upset about the army’s failure to pay their outstanding allowances. They were also annoyed by the decision of the newly posted GOC to ban motorcycles as a form of transport within the barracks. The new GOC reportedly banned motorbikes known as Okada and tricycles known as Keke NAPEP from operating within the vast barracks. The soldiers wondered why the new commander would prohibit the use of the only affordable means of transport they have, when he knows full well that the base covers a huge area and that few soldiers own cars or bike. “If no okada [motorcycles] are allowed, then our small children have to walk to school and our wives will walk to market. Are we not suffering too much already?” One of the soldiers told Sahara Reporters. Several sources in the barracks said that the soldiers’ second act of mutiny in two weeks began around 3:00 p.m. (Nigerian time). The angry soldiers blew a whistle, and most of the rank and file gathered at a spot before they marched en masse to the 7th Division headquarters building where the GOC’s office is located. The sources said the soldiers shot in the air as they marched and chanted. Once they arrived at the GOC’s office, the protesting soldiers decided to give him a dose of the experience of navigating within the barracks without motorcycles. They ordered Major General XYZ to come outside the building, pushing and shoving him. Then they forced him to trek all through the barracks. The angry soldiers also demanded the payment of their N100,000 furniture allowance which, according to them, was long overdue. Last week, frustrated soldiers at the same barracks demonstrated and shot at the car of their erstwhile GOC, Major General Ahmadu Mohammed. The soldiers felt that his operational orders were responsible for the death of close to 100 soldiers who were returning from an operation in Chibok, the town where members of the Islamist group, Boko Haram, kidnapped 276 high schoolgirls near midnight on April 14. Military authorities in Abuja remove Major General Mohammed a day after the first mutiny.