In a concerning development, Corporal Sunday Okediran has allegedly been detained by Lt. Col. A. A. Buba, the Commanding Officer of the 154 Taskforce Battalion of the Nigerian Army in the Northeast region. This detention follows allegations raised by Okediran regarding the subpar feeding conditions of soldiers in the battalion.
Okediran was reportedly locked up for exposing what he believed to be poor feeding conditions for army officers, despite an increased allocation for their meals.
On Monday, SaharaReporters reported that some soldiers of the 154 Taskforce Battalion deployed to fight terrorists in the Northeast region lamented that despite an increment of money earmarked for their feeding allowance, they were being fed poorly cooked rice.
One of the affected soldiers had told the publication that the Battalion in Ngamdu under the command of Lt. Col. A. A. Buba gave them only bread and tea for breakfast on Mondays and Thursdays, rice for dinners, white rice and stew for Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays “but concussion rice for the remaining weekdays.”
Reacting to this allegation, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, called for an immediate investigation into the matter.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by the Director, of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, the COAS noted that the welfare of troops under his leadership takes a premium place amongst other important schemes and considerations.
But on Thursday, it was gathered from the platform that Lt. Col. Buba, on Wednesday morning, ordered that Corporal Okediran be locked up.
A source told the platform that the soldier had been locked up in the guard room since Wednesday morning for allegedly being the whistle-blower behind the exposure of how soldiers are poorly fed by the Commanding Officer.
The source said, “I have it on good authority that one Corporal Sunday Okediran has been locked up on the orders of the Commander, Lt. Col. A. A. Buba, after he was accused of being the whistle-blower exposing how soldiers are poorly fed.
“He has been locked up in the guard room since yesterday (Wednesday) morning.”
