Army Confirms Reinstatement of 3,032 Dismissed Soldiers
This was made known by the acting Director of Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, at a news conference in Abuja.
According to Usman, the cases presented to the disciplinary review committee were treated on merit, adding that the review process was still on.
He explained that only soldiers with disciplinary cases have been reinstated as those with criminal cases are not even considered by the committee.
His words: “You would recall that the Nigerian Army sometime ago instituted a committee to review the recent disciplinary cases in the service, especially of those soldiers in the defunct “Operation Zaman Lafiya.’’
“The committee has concluded its initial sitting and has made certain recommendation that led to the reinstatement of 3,032 soldiers out of 5,000 cases reviewed so far.
“The cases reviewed were only disciplinary as no criminal cases were considered, the review is ongoing but the bulk of the work has been done for the time being.
“The reinstated soldiers have shown their total readiness to be re-launched into theatre to combat insurgency and have commenced a re-training at the Nigerian Army Training Centre, Kontagora, Niger.
“This training is to re-orientate the affected soldiers and prepare them for the closing stage of the operational aspect of the counter-insurgency operations with more weapons and new leadership.
“It must, however, be made clear that not all dismissed soldiers were granted pardon and recalled, those with criminal cases, had their sentences upheld”.
Col. Usman added that the re-training would re-acquaint the reinstated soldiers with development in the re-invigorated fight against insurgency in parts of the Northeast.
He expressed the commitment of the present administration towards encouraging officers and soldiers, especially those in the frontline to give their best in their service to the nation.
According to him, government would reward the gallantry of officers and soldiers involved in the ongoing operations in the Northeast and other operations in which the army was involved in.