Redeployment: Army blames soldiers’ protest on misunderstanding

The Nigerian Army has blamed the protest by some soldiers at the Maiduguri Airport on Sunday on misunderstanding of the redeployment being carried out.

Some soldiers went riotous at the airport for two hours on Sunday shooting into the air in protest over alleged wrongful redeployment.

The Nigerian Army recently announced that it would carry out redeployment in the theatre of operation in the North East with the intention of strengthening the fight against the terrorist group, Boko Haram.

However, reacting to the protest on Sunday, the Deputy Director, Public Relations, Operation Lafiya Dole Theatre Command, Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, said the protest resulted from the misunderstanding that the redeployment was going to negatively affect them.

He said that peace had since returned just as he described the incident as unfortunate.

He said that the Theatre Commander, Major General Abba Dikko, had has promptly taken control of the situation.

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His words:  “The redeployment became expedient after a recent assessment of the security situation by the Theatre Command. Regrettably however, a few of the troops who had misunderstood the development and erroneously assumed it was going to negatively affect their rotation from the theatre of operation became agitated and reacted by firing into the air.

“Calm has however been restored, as the Theatre Commander, Major General Abba Dikko has promptly taken charge of the situation after addressing and admonishing the troops,” Nwachukwu said.

“The Theatre Command undoubtedly considers this ugly incident quite regrettable and appropriate measures are being taken to forestall a recurrence,” he added.

It was gathered that the protesting soldiers were embittered that they had stayed too long in the North East, having been there for over three years.

They explained that the directive from the Army headquarters did not require that they should stay too long in the theatre before another set of solders were brought.

Besides, they felt it would be unsafe for some of them trained for air operations to be deployed for ground battle as they claimed the redeployment appeared to be.