Soldiers angry over three months field allowance arrears

From Bodunrin kayode in Maiduguri

There is a major disquiet in the ranks of the military at the epi-centre of war in the northeast as some angry soldiers have alleged that they are being owed three months of their field allowances.

This has been a cause for concern by the civil authorities as some soldiers have been living on the goodwill of people to obtain vital items for themselves like drugs when ill while managing roadblocks within the city.

Sadly this is because a large chunk of them who are married have directed their families back home to pick up their salaries for the up keep of the family while they hoped to manage the merge N1,000 a day given to them as field allowance.

Although Army headquarters auditors and investigators who visited the 7th division recently to investigate the delay are said to be on ground nosing around the books of the 7th division’s pay office, nothing urgent has been done about these allowances which they say should have been paid as at when due.

Our military sources however say that the auditors did a very good job by fingering 212 and 213 battalions as having lots of duplicated names in the pay office which is why they had to stop the table payment till further notice because somebody has been collecting these extras claiming that those affected were undocumented.

While the army high command is working to eliminate this lingering corruption which deprives some soldiers of their entitlements,  the soldiers are hardly communicated through their RSM’s who are also feeling the pinch of their allowances not being paid especially at critical fronts where they cannot buy any food item to cook.

Some soldiers who spoke to this reporter complained of low morale leading to the lowering of guards and as such the recent attack at Dalori settlement in the outskirts of Maiduguri over the weekend.

According to the army spokesman Col Muhammed Anka, the insurgents launched attack on  Dalori through Yale from the rear of Dalori village last weekend causing casualties.

He said that the insurgent came in two Golf cars and their usual motorcycles, opening fire on civilians and burning houses with a motive to cause rancour and penetrate crowd with suicide bombers.

Sadly, while people were running for their dear lives to Gomari Kerkeri village, three female suicide bombers also attempted to make their way into the crowd but were intercepted and subsequently got blown up before getting to their targets.

Anka confirmed that the insurgents also attempted  to penetrate Dalori IDP camp, but were resisted by the troops which resulted into detonation of IED by the suicide bombers.

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Theatre Commander Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Hassan Umaru condoled the District Head Alh Lawal Bashir and entire dwellers for the unfortunate incident and assured them of the Theatre’s commitment in bringing insurgency to an end soon.

General Umaru commended the villagers for their resilience and urged them to be strong and committed in the fight against insurgency.

Boko Haram have made several attempts to penetrate Maiduguri the capital of Borno state but have always failed at the edge of their attempts.