The Nigerian Army has concluded arrangement to set up another court-martial to try some of its erring officers and soldiers.
Daily Sun reliably gathered that the court martial, which will be inaugurated tomorrow, at the Command Army Officers Mess, Abuja, has Colonel M. S. Yusuf, as president of the court while Lieutenant-Colonel Ukpe-Ukpe will serve as judge advocate.
It was also gathered that the affected officers and soldiers have duly been informed about the court-martial in official letters delivered to them last Thursday.
The army authorities were said to have advised the affected officers and soldiers to make arrangement for their legal counsel to defend them on the charges slammed on them.
Sources hinted that even though members of the court-martial would be officially inaugurated tomorrow, the court would not sit until after about two weeks because of the public holidays declared by the Federal Government for the Sallah celebrations.
Daily Sun gathered that similar court-martial was going on at various divisions and units of the Nigerian Army across the country for various offenses including indiscipline, information leakage to terrorists, failure to advance and perform military duties, acts of cowardice, negligence and other attitudes unbecoming of soldiers.
A top army officer, who spoke with Daily Sun, but did not want his name in print, decried the incessant acts of cowardice displayed by some soldiers deployed to fight insurgency in the North East, saying some of them abandoned their weapons and even pulled off their uniforms when they came face-to-face with the terrorists.
This singular act, according to the officer, was responsible for the criticism of the military by Nigerians that Boko Haram insurgents were better armed than the military.
“What do you expect when some soldiers abandon their weapons and uniform on sighting Boko Haram terrorists? Of course, the result is that you end up increasing their armoury and giving them the guts to want to dare our troops.
“The Boko Haram insurgents boast that they have the capability to engage our soldiers for the next 45 years, simply because they are in possession of some of our weapons. But, I bet you, all that will change in a matter of hours, trust me,” he said.
Daily Sun also gathered that apart from officers and soldiers who were found wanting, while on internal security operations in the North East, some soldiers who absconded from their units on hearing that they were going to be deployed to the zone, were also going to face court-martial.
