Calm restored to Maiduguri after shootout by angry soldiers

SPOKESMAN of the operation lafia Dole Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu has said that calm has been restored in the Maiduguri international airport which witnessed a rebellion of some special forces soldiers who shot in the air to protest their posting to northern Borno Sunday evening.

The soldiers who were about to be shipped to Marte in northern Borno felt some wrongs were being meted out to them by their commanders as such, they will not move an inch till it was corrected to fall in line with what their chief told them.

In a release made available to newsmen in Maiduguri, the spokesman said the “theatre Command yesterday witnessed a riotous reaction from a few unscrupulous troops while conducting a redeployment of troops who are currently deployed at the Maiduguri Airport, following a directive to review troops’ deployment in Maiduguri metropolis in a bid to reinvigorate the security architecture of the city.

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“The redeployment became expedient after a recent assessment of the security situation by the Theatre Command,” the release said.

According to him, “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” to spell their anger.

The spokesman said that calm has however been restored, in the airport and the metropolis as the Theatre Commander, Major General Abba Dikko has promptly taken charge of the situation after addressing and admonishing the troops.

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