Nigerian Army troops stand near their new SINOTRUK lorry
DAILY TRUST
Written by Misbahu Bashir
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
The Defence Headquarters in Abuja yesterday said the failure to airlift Nigerian troops serving under the United Nations African Union Hybrid Missions in DaRfur, Sudan, on time was not its making.
The soldiers have threatened to go on rampage if they were not paid their allowances and airlifted back to Nigeria on or before July 3, 2012. The soldiers, whose duty tour expired on May 26 after the mandatory six months, are from battalions NIBATTS 30, 31, 32 and 33 deployed in November 26, 2011 and January 12, 2012.
The Director of Defence Information, Colonel Mohammed Yerima, said the Defence Headquarters has paid all the entitlements of soldiers and has no hands in their transportation.
“The UN is responsible for troops airlift exercises and was actually expected to transport Nigerian battalions due for rotation. The UN was to bring back to Nigeria NIBATT 31 and replaced it with NIBATT 34 which is currently here but after transporting over a hundred soldiers, they stopped.
Hear him, “The UN was to bring back to Nigeria NIBATT 31 and replaced it with NIBATT 34 which is currently here but after transporting over a hundred soldiers, they stopped”. The UN stopped and Defense HQ abandoned its soldiers because UN did not pick them up?@#*$&?!
But other countries chartered planes to transport their boys back home?
I always wonder the kind of human beings we have as government officials
Questions are;
(1) Why did the UN airlift contigents from Sri Lanka etc and leave Nigeria,s contingent?
(2) If the UN did not lift contingents from other countries, who did?
(3) If each country lifted its own contigent, why havent we done so?
(4) Can’t we chatter a private plane to do it or is it as expensive as the feeding Mr President (1Billion)?
For Pete’s sake, if the UN can’t airlift our soldiers, let NAF coordinate the whole operation. I’m definitely sure our C-130 pilots will jump at the oppourtunity to clock in more hours.