The 3032 soldiers, who were pardoned last August for mutiny and other offences allegedly committed during the fight against Boko Haram, have rejected being redeployed to the war front.
According to the soldiers, their redeployment to the North East is punitive after they had been pardoned and re-integrated into the army.
The soldiers who are being held at the Command and Staff College, Nigerian Army School of Infantry, NASI, Jaji, Kaduna said they have been subjected to unimaginable ill treatment after their pardon.
They alleged that they have not been fully re-instated to the army because when they tried to report to their previous units they were turned down because the army authorities did not give them letters of reinstatement.
They also alleged that they have been kicked out of their homes in the barracks and have not been paid for seven months.
“We are not going! Give us reinstatement letters! You are sentencing us back to war,” the soldiers were alleged to have chanted after the Commandant of NASI, Major General Kassim Aldulkareem, informed them that they have been assigned new riffles and should be ready for deployment to the fronts on January 11, 2016.
A soldiers, who asked not to be named, told journalists that he is being maltreated after serving the army for the better part of his life.
“Look at me; I have put in about 28 years of my life serving this country. I have seen action in Liberia; I have been to Rwanda, Sudan and even served overseas and we the Nigerian troops did very well and were decorated in some occasions.
“But, our experience in fighting to save our motherland is too sad a story for the outside world to know. We are not cowards. We held on for over four months facing Boko Haram.
“I just want to say that after the Army dismissed about 5,000 of us, 3032 of us were pardoned last August. Since that time, the Army Authority has treated us like prisoners of wars,” he said.
The Public Relations Officer, PRO, of the Nigerian Infantry Corps, Major C.K Abaide, said he was not aware of the development.
“I shall reach you back immediately I have our side of the story”, he said, but had not done this at the time of sending this report.
