About 500 soldiers may be quizzed by the Board of Inquiry probing last Wednesday’s mutiny in Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri.

The Defence Headquarters has sent military police to conduct independent investigation into the incident.

Frustrated troops shot sporadically into the air and attacked the former GOC of the Division, Major General Ahmed Mohammmed.

The attack left some military escorts of the ex-GOC injured. Some arrests were made.

Sources told our correspondent that an internal Board of Inquiry has been set up to look into the alleged mutiny.

A military source, who spoke in confidence, said: “So far, the inquiry is an internal matter of the unit where the soldiers misbehaved.

“The military hierarchy has mandated the Board of Inquiry to look at the remote and immediate causes of the misconduct of the soldiers, some of who are already in detention.

“The Board will interrogate all the soldiers in the battalion in order to be able to dethrone those behind it.

“We are talking of about 500 to 700 facing the Board of Inquiry. The probe is not limited to the few who fired shots at the car of the former GOC.”

Asked why all the soldiers in the battalion will be quizzed, the source added: “The picture of the incident could be larger than you think.

“In the military, we do not take things for granted. We have to sort out all the soldiers in the battalion to get to the root of this professional indiscipline.”

Another source also said the Defence Headquarters had directed military police to “conduct independent investigation into the incident.”

The source said: “The military will go the extra mile to ascertain the situation of things in the cantonment and have discreet interaction with soldiers to know what really went wrong.

“The military police will fill some gaps which the Board of Inquiry might not be able to cover.”

The soldiers were said to have been angry about what they called:

•Cheap exposure to ambush by Boko Haram insurgents due to uncoordinated information;

•Needless killing of soldiers as a result of misleading information;

•Insufficient food (one meal per day);

•Obsolete equipment, limited arms and ammunition to fight insurgents;

•Alleged short-payment of accruing allowances; and

•Non rotation of troops leading to diminishing returns.

•Text courtesy of The Nation. Photo shows Chief of Army Staff, en. Kenneth Minimah.

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