About 250 soldiers from Nigerian Army School of Infantry, Jaji, stormed the Nigeria Union of Journalists secretarial, Kaduna to protest their alleged unlawful dismissal from the Army.
According to them, they were dismissed since 1st of February, this year.
They stated that they were part of 3,000 soldiers that were dismissed by the Nigerian Army last year for various offenses in the North-east while fighting the insurgents, but were later reinstated in the Army after thorough screening.
The soldiers, who sought for anonymity, told newsmen that their coming to the NUJ secretarial was to let the public know their predicament and for President Muhammadu Buhari and the Army authority to come to their aid.
“We are young and ready to serve our country; we are ready to serve the Nigerian Army. We have families to cater for and we want to be pardoned for any offence we may have committed.
“We want the world to know that after we were reinstated in the Nigerian Army, we have received three months intensive training and for us to be dismissed now because we came late at the last parade, it sounds somehow,” one of them lamented.
Another soldier observed that, “I have spent over 20 years in the Army. I have also served in the North-east before we were brought back to Jaji and now you are asking us to go when we have all gone through rigorous training and are determined to serve our fatherland; we are now being asked to leave service for an offence that is pardonable,” another embattled soldier complained.
On why they were absent at the last parade, which led to their alleged dismissal, one of the soldiers explained, “We have to treck for about 30 minutes before getting to the parade ground because most of the soldiers affected are not mobile and are not living inside the Army barracks.
“Some of us were not even aware of the parade taking place on that day. It was later we were alerted and when we got to the venue, we were ordered to submit our uniforms and other things belonging to the Army.”
The spokesman of one Mechanized Division, Nigerian Army, Colonel Abdul Usman, said the Army headquarters would issue a statement.
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