Boko Haram : Some Of My Men Run Away From Fights –Gen Minimah

Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. KTJ Minimah has
come out and surprised the general public and admitted
that some of his men openly display acts of cowardice and
indiscipline in their ongoing war with terrorist group Boko
Haram.
In a new communiqué issued through the Defence
Headquarters twitter account after its quarterly conference
of the COAS ended, Minimah said: "the rising acts of
indiscipline and unprofessional conduct by troops was
unbecoming and charged Commanders at all levels to put a
stop to it as the Nigerian Army was a professional
organization."
Gen-Minimah also talked about the mutiny that occurred in
Borno capital Maiduguri, and said: "A few issues needs to
be urgently addressed that have caught my attention in
recent weeks.
Principal among these is the rising acts of indiscipline and
unprofessional conduct by troops. In this regard, the recent
mutinous act in Maiduguri and reported destruction of public
property in Lagos readily comes to mind.
As a professional army, the conduct of our troops must be
above board at all times" Blaming it on the fact that most
people, who joined the military in recent times, do so out of
the need for employment and not passion for military
service, Minimah said, "Desertion is part of warfare.
We must accept that since the era of the Cartagena wars,
soldiers had deserted from battle field. In our own case, we
are doing recruitment now and we are also receiving
presentations from across the country, from people who
want their wards to be enlisted in the army".
"But we need to have a thorough recruitment because mind
you, there is high level of unemployment on ground; most
people want jobs and if that job means joining the army
fine. It is a source of employment.
However, when the reality of the military service comes, he
drops his riffles. So desertion will continue to be there. We
had desertion in ECOMOG; in the Nigerian Civil war and
now it will continue to be there".
"Also, acts of indiscipline will continue to be there but when
they are caught, they are investigated and when they are
found questionable they will face the Court-Martial". "Like I
said, in a few months time, the war will be over. But I
cannot give you a clear calendar date because this is war
on terrorism. It cannot be determined in terms of concrete
date".
Gen Minimah has been the COAS since the start of this
year, but has not achieved much success in the fight against
terrorism, He has however been happy with the recent
capture of Balmo forest in Borno from the hands of Boko
Haram agents.
The mutiny in Maidugiri was caused after the soldiers lost
their friends who where assigned to a particular dangerous
area.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN