Soldiers stationed at the 23 Brigade, Yola, Adamawa State, have urged President, Muhammadu Buhari, Minister of Defense, National Assembly members, and the Chief of Defense Staff and Chief of Army Staff, COAS, to rescue them from an alleged high-handness of the Commander of the Brigade, Brigadier General S.G Mohammed.
According to a report by the online news portal, SaharaReporters, the soldiers specifically criticised Mohammed, of treating them and their families like slaves.
They also alleged that their boss was not obeying the Federal Government’s guidelines on forestalling the spread of COVID-19 as directed by the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai.
“With the present global threat of COVID-19 pandemic of which the Federal Government outlined some guidelines to curtail the spread of the virus, the COAS directed that office hour should not exceed 1600hrs with emphasis on social distancing and other protective measures but the Commander, Brigadier General SG Mohammed, vehemently disobeyed the directives by closing at 1900hours – 2100 hours daily,” one of the soldiers told SaharaReporters.
“It will be interesting to note that the Brigade has no duty truck to convey troops to their various duty posts despite the long distance, the commander unlawfully ordered troops to stop using their vehicles to duty while he made no efforts to provide duty trucks.
“Sir, Jibson Jalo Military Cantonment is accommodating personnel of AHQ Log Base II, HQ 23 Brigade, 23 Bde Garrison and sub-units, 232 Battalion and their families.
“The Cantonment as it stands today is completely dilapidated and need serious renovation. The commander in his myopic thinking is concentrating on adding more hardship to the troops and their families by fencing the barracks by Bachure (a neighbouring suburb of the barracks where ex-soldiers settled) where our families used to buy some items for immediate use after he instructed the total closure of the No 2 gate which directly links the area.
“More importantly, the commander has banned the sale of burukutu, pork, dog and beer at the Mammy Market thereby making life difficult for soldiers.
“It is also worthy to mention the wicked action of the commander towards our family by banning the use of commercial motorcycle operating within the barracks. Our family members now trek from point A to B regardless of the distance.
“Also of recent, he authorised the ban of the use of motorcycle by soldiers even to their places of work, making it very difficult for us considering the distance between our houses and offices. He shamelessly cited insecurity as a reason for his actions as if we are not the ones to fight when the need arises.”
One of the soldiers said they were tired of the rules and they were suffering.
“He already stopped the sale of meat except for cow, goat and ram but the most painful part of it is all is the closure of shops of our family members in Mammy Market who are barbers, shoemakers, tailors, vulcanizers e.t.c even before the COVID-19.
“We now pay for transportation to get everything we need in town, that is for those working in the office but for those once on guard, they always appear dirty on parade and while on duty.
“He ordered the engineers to disconnect light from Mammy Market, we cannot even get common ice fish in our market for family use again.
“This suffering is getting out of hand, all our family members are not happy with the general way Mohammed is commanding the troops and nobody is saying anything good about his command.”
