Unbelievable! Soldiers tired of fighting, flee Boko Haram war

– Nigerian soldiers are reportedly deserting their posts in the northeast as the war against Islamist insurgents Boko Haram continues

– Soldiers are allegedly staying too long on the warfront and are now looking for escape routes

– A high number of soldiers have reportedly deserted the military this year alone because they are tired of the war

Nigerian soldiers are again running away from fighting Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast because of a new psychological threat, The Sun is reporting.

According to the report, unlike in the past, the solders are not running away from the insurgents because they lacked weapons to fight but because the war has dragged on for too long and has become tiring for them.

The Sun quotes a top source in the military as saying that the army has been witnessing an incredibly high number of deserters this year alone, especially in the northeast where troops are abandoning their posts.

“They said the pass, which is not more than two weeks, is given to personnel after spending six months in the frontline, was not enough for them to solve family problems which emanated as a result of their absence and it did not give them enough time to stay with their children.

“Others said their long absence has resulted in broken homes where some wives have had to divorce their husbands,” some military personnel told The Sun, narrating how some soldiers deliberately deserted the warfront after getting the mandatory pass claiming they are going to see their families.

It reports that some troops have been in the theatre of war for over two years, which is way too long for some soldiers to stomach. In fact, some troops from a military encampment in Lagos have been in the northeast for more three years.

An unnamed troop narrated the sad tale of the soldiers on warfront thus: “Our long absence and separation from our families have ended up turning some of our wives to harlots because there are some soldiers, when they come back on pass, they find their wives pregnant and the authorities knows about this because we always report such cases.

“For some of us, our female children are beginning to sleep around and our sons engage in one criminal activity or the other all because their fathers are not at home…”
But Army public relations officer Colonel Sani Usman denied that soldiers are deserting the warfront.

He told The Sun: “We have started with the unit in Badagry, 112 Special Forces and some other ones.

“It is a gradual process but, I want you to understand is that you don’t pull people out of their locations just like that without taking into consideration other things.

“Right now, there is a unit of the army at Jaji who are undergoing post-deployment training because of the traumatic stress they went through.

“So, you have to prepare a unit to go into battle, it’s not an easy thing. There is an established procedure of going in and pulling out.

Those that are going in go to our Special Forces Training School at Buni-Yadi.

“Then, they will gradually change the unit and the unit will be repatriated to Jaji and go through induction training before they are reunited with their families”.

“So, it is not correct that soldiers are deserting the warfront because they have over-stayed there.

“I would have that you oblige me with the particulars of those soldiers who ran away because they have not been rotated.”

NAIJ.com investigations revealed that according to section 60 of the Armed Forces Decree of 1993, penalties for desertion is a jail term of not less than two years.

In a separate development five kidnappers were killed during the gunfight in Bauchi state. The Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, the acting director on army public relations, has released a statement on Monday, October 3, that reads in part.