Troops protest: Officers/soldiers involved arrested, will face military justice – Buratai

Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Yusuf Buratai, yesterday, said that scores of officers and soldiers who protested violently at Maiduguri airport, Borno State, over deployment to new locations in the North-East, have been arrested, adding that they had been investigated and will face military justice.


He also said he had directed that another sustained campaign focused on community stabilisation be conducted to counter the negative narrative and ideology of Boko Haram terrorists to break the effect on the misled.

Speaking on the incident for the first time at a media parley in Abuja, the COAS said: “The incident at the Maiduguri airport that happened just about two weeks ago is an issue, which ordinarily is unimaginable,  that disciplined troops, soldiers will behave in that way.

“But we have our procedures and this issue has been thoroughly investigated and those that have been found to be involved will face military justice. This sort of affairs will never be tolerated no matter the person or persons involved.

“There was a directive I gave that there should be a general reorganisation, redeployment of troops to various locations for us to consolidate on the operational efforts in the North-East to prevent the unnecessary attacks on our own troops and civilians across this nation.

“It is part of the overall plans to secure the North-East and they were directed to execute that plan and if for whatever reason, they resisted it, then it’s unfortunate and we are going to deal with them accordingly.”

Speaking further, the Army Chief said the media interaction was aimed at enlightening the general public on the Nigerian Army’s non-kinetic efforts at combating insurgency.

“One of such effort is promoting community stabilisation as a means of combating the negative ideology of the Boko Haram terrorists.