The Nigerian Army has deployed 3,032 pardoned soldiers in the North-East to fight Boko Haram insurgents. The affected soldiers had been summarily dismissed from the military in 2014 over offences allegedly committed as part of the troops involved in counter insurgency operations in the North-East.
The soldiers were dismissed by their unit commanders at the peak of the Boko Haram attacks in the North-East in 2014.
Many soldiers had at the peak of the battle against Boko Haram last year allegedly disobeyed their commanders and reportedly declined confronting the insurgents with inadequate weapons.
The 3,032 soldiers were among 5,000 dismissed soldiers whose cases were reviewed by a military panel led by the General Officer Commanding, 1 Division, Maj. Gen. Adeniyi Oyebade. The panel had been set up by the army authorities to revisit the cases of the soldiers in August 2015.
