[center]Nigerian soldiers jailed for life  [/center]

The Nigerian military has been peacekeeping in Liberia since 1990
A group of Nigerian troops who held a protest over pay have been sentenced to life in jail for mutiny.

The 28 soldiers, including four women, took to the streets in south-western Ondo state in July 2008 waving leafy branches and singing songs.

They claimed they were owed as much as $25,000 (£17,200) each by the army.

But the court martial in Lagos said the protest breached military discipline. One of the soldiers, who were UN peacekeepers in Liberia, was cleared.

In January the same court convicted five officers of stealing $68,000 (£46,800) that was meant for Nigerian peacekeepers in Liberia.

'Dehumanising'

Peter Adonu, of the soldiers' legal team, said they would appeal against the verdict.

The protest was a pay dispute, not a mutiny and never posed a threat to state security, he said.

Mr Adonu added his clients had been held in "dehumanising conditions" and were denied medical care.

Nigerian troops have been part of the peacekeeping forces in Liberia since 1990 when they were brought in by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) to stop a civil war there.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8022117.stm

You know why I am truly ecstatic about this event, It shows you how out-of-depth our nation is.

Does our leadership truly have control of our security forces? there is dissent within the ranks of the Police and the Army. it is silent but certain, and little sparks such as this will eventually burn through.

While unfortunate, I think the only way this country will change is through a cataclysmic surge of violence that will extinguish the politically corrupt in this country. Yes there will be innocent casualties sacrificed on the slabs of true democracy. Baba go slow and his cohorts are so slow to notice that this nation has several bonfires, they are busy talking about Global Financial Meltdown and how to re-budget based on a dwindling global oil prices. This nation will burn eventually and it may be for the greater good. I say continue on the path of self-destruction,

What happens when a billionaire corrupt politician is not satisfied with the election results (there are frustrated poor and experienced military/police to hire)

What happens when our security forces realize that their families cannot feed and their daughters are prostitutes and sons petty thieves
Rather than solve the Niger-Delta problem, they resort to violence and forget that we all know the origins, slowly but surely we are creating deep resentment between across ethnic, social and religious lines but we are too blind to notice because we hope that our rush

Jailing soldiers for life over a peaceful protest by those soldiers seeking illegally withheld back-pay for peace-keeping duties is a grave travesty and mad miscarriage of justice. Those men and women soldiers risked their lives in foreign lands, where they were drafted to maintain civil order, only to have high-ranking officers steal the hard currency that had been entrusted to them for the payroll remittances of enlisted men and women.

Rather than rounding up the embezzlers of those soldier's pay for trial and punishment, the VICTIMS whose salary was stolen were further humiliated before a kangaroo court marshall process, which resulted in the handing down of demented sentences of LIFE terms in jail. Even to anyone that feels completely indifferent to members of the Nigerian armed forces, the wrong being done to those men and women is blatant, crude and unconscionable.

If this is the sort of treatment meted out to members of the Nigerian armed forces, then it is hardly surprising that many wrongfully dismissed soldiers and policemen gravitate to armed robbery, and pursue that career with reckless abandon and sadistic brutality.

@post
the doctrinal tradition of the Army is against protest of any form, it does not argur well for discipline, command and control. the purnishment must be severe or else the same will be repeated elsewhere and it will be a calamity for state security.

this is not to justify the looting officers that deprived those gallant soldiers their dues, it is a sign of a sick nation.

but then, those soldiers should have used another peaceful and orderly method of registering their grieviances and injustice done to them.

but as I said early on, that kind of behaviour from those soldiers cannot be tolerated anywhere in the world because it creates a problem of order and control, no state or military institution can afford it.

@post
the doctrinal tradition of the Army is against protest of any form, it does not argur well for discipline, command and control. the purnishment must be severe or else the same will be repeated elsewhere and it will be a calamity for state security.

this is not to justify the looting officers that deprived those gallant soldiers their dues, it is a sign of a sick nation.

but then, those soldiers should have used another peaceful and orderly method of registering their grieviances and injustice done to them.

but as I said early on, that kind of behaviour from those soldiers cannot be tolerated anywhere in the world because it creates a problem of order and control, no state or military institution can afford it.

Topic!

kaygee1234:

[center]Nigerian soldiers jailed for life [/center]

The Nigerian military has been peacekeeping in Liberia since 1990
A group of Nigerian troops who held a protest over pay have been sentenced to life in jail for mutiny.

So they've been owed thier income for over two decades??

@post
the doctrinal tradition of the Army is against protest of any form, it does not argur well for discipline, command and control. the purnishment must be severe or else the same will be repeated elsewhere and it will be a calamity for state security.

this is not to justify the looting officers that deprived those gallant soldiers their dues, it is a sign of a sick nation.

but then, those soldiers should have used another peaceful and orderly method of registering their grieviances and injustice done to them.

but as I said early on, that kind of behaviour from those soldiers cannot be tolerated anywhere in the world because it creates a problem of order and control, no state or military institution can afford it.

TOYOSI20:

So they've been owed thier income for over two decades??

No. Since 1990 could easily mean they were in Liberia until 2007

TOYOSI20:

So they've been owed thier income for over two decades??

No. Since 1990 could easily mean they were in Liberia until 2007  

sad for em, they lost their money complained and went on to lose freedom

idupaul:

sad for em, they lost their money complained and went on to lose freedom

na real wao
where is Omgoe/Hauwa and her "Go T.I.G.E.R.S . . . .God bless our troops" ?

Thats Unfair!

Thats life in Nigeria, Nigeria is not a country to fight for unlike America.

That's life in Nigeria, Nigeria is not a country to fight for unlike America.

It is a lesson for other Nigerians