Some young soldiers deployed to North East Nigeria to combat Boko Haram under the Auspices of Operation Lafiya Dole in 2015 have pleaded to President Buhari to look into their case of total abandonment without any consideration of rotational redeployment.

This is contained in a letter written to the President and made available to nigeriancablenewsonline.com.

Below is the letter unedited:

REQUEST FOR ROTATION OF 73 INTAKE SOLDIERS POSTED TO OP LAFIYA DOLE FROM DEPOT NIGERIAN ARMY ZARIA.

An open Letter to President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR.

Letter dated 12 Nov 17.

Dear Mr President,

1. I, on behalf of the 73 Intake Soldiers that were inducted into the Theatre of operation on 23 Dec 15 write to inform Mr President on our overstayed in the operations. We passed out on 12 Dec 15 (the day COAS convoy was attacked by Zakzaky Team) upon the information received, we were issued rifles and were deployed in all the nooks and crannies of Zaria. Ten days was spent in the ancient city of Zaria where we are protecting the lives and property of the law abiding citizen (which some people refer to the protection as #ZariaMassacre) before we (450 soldiers) enter Maiduguri on 23 Dec 15. Having spent some weeks in Maiduguri city when we undergone some Cadre courses, we were deployed in many locations mainly in the bush. Some of the locations were:

a. Gwoza.
b. Pulka.
c. Bama.
d. Bulabulin.
e. Damboa.
f. Chibok.
g. Askira/Uba.
h. Dikwa et all.

2. Sir, I request for your special intervention on this matter as some of my colleagues has been killed by Boko Haram Terrorists while some are feeling pains in both 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Kaduna and 7 Division Medical Store & Hospital Maiduguri respectively. Sir, it is pertinent to know that having been inducted into the Theatre since 2015 resulted to the lack of unit regimentation that was received by our senior and junior intakes.

3. I like to also draw the attention of Mr President to our junior intake that were inducted into Operations and were rotated after 6 months (74 intake soldiers was a case study). I beg President Buhari to cause the Office of the COAS so as to facilitate our rotation in subsequent time. This will go a long way to remain in the Nigerian Army if rotated. Lest I forgot, I like to also inform Mr President on the large cases of Absence Without Official Leave (AWOL) that has been recorded in respect of the 73 intake soldiers inducted in the Operation on 23 Dec 15. There are some of us that use to spend up to 10 months before given official pass to see their families and love ones. Sir, you should also be informed that almost 20 percent of my course mates in the North East Theatre of Operations has deserted the Nigerian Army due to Overstayed of we 73 intake soldiers inducted into the Theatre from the Training ground (Sir, I’ll like you to investigate this from AHQ DOAA).

4. Consequent upon the above, I plead on behalf of 15NA/73 intake soldiers posted to North East in Dec 2015 to Mr President to look into the aforesaid and cause the COAS to facilitate our rotation out of the Theatre so that we can also feel like a soldier, serving in a unit like our colleagues.

5. This is submitted for your perusal and kind consideration sir.

Signed.
15NA/73/………
#Team73 in Op LAFIYA DOLE.