Army’s denial of vandalising BRT buses

Five days after the very mad and unbelievably shameless act of reckless, total devilment of several public transport buses in Lagos, by members of the Nigerian armed forces, the 81st Division released a statement of total denial.

The Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Lt. Col. Omale Ochagwuba, in his publicly released denial, claimed that “hoodlums” and not soldiers broke and burnt the buses.

The denial by the Nigerian Army is a painful – but not surprising – blow to Nigerians and a cause for great alarm. Too many Nigerian civilians of reputable character witnessed the vandalism and captured the act with their eyes and on camera. Too many Nigerians were barred by the members of the Nigerian Army from taking pictures of the mayhem, forced to raise their hands while they walked past. Too many Nigerian citizens were punished by the soldiers on the rampage that day.

The denial of this veritable narrative by the army is a cause for serious concern. Does the army in its denial mean that the soldiers seen vandalising the buses are hoodlums? With this denial, does this mean that those implicated will enjoy impunity for their acts of insolence, reckless endangerment and destruction of public property worth millions of naira?

What does this blatant denial tell us, the people, the army is here to defend, and what type of comfort does this give us with regard to all future matters of security under such authorised gun wielders? Is it this nature of people we give the right to bear arms and send to ‘defend’ our local outskirts communities?

If this denial of the truth stands, what kind of reassurance does this give us about our army’s engagement in the North-East; what does it tell us about the burning down of Baga in April 2013, for instance? In what type of hands are our citizens in the north conflict zones? What does this tell us about all the instances of claims of army excesses and army-on-army, civilian and civilian-JTF, terror in Borno State?

Is it every time that the army is barbaric that hoodlums and terrorists are blamed? At times like this, one misses Fela who would certainly have released a track about, Hoodlums in camouflage!

No one is above error, misjudgment and reckless misadventure, however when an institution like the army, fails to admit deadly blunders of its men, and rather than mete out the appropriate punishment to them, goes further in haste without responsible investigation, to attempt to cover up for treacherous atrocities, it puts the entire nation in a state of suspended discombobulation.

When the BRT vandalism first occurred, Nigerians expected the entire Division responsible to be re-deployed to Borno State. However, today we have been forced to take a different position. We cannot any longer trust these service men to wield weapons. We cannot be so callous as to send these lying Schmuck to our isolated north-eastern communities. These are the type of military men who aid and abet Boko Haam, who step back and allow Boko Haram stockup on weapons from the nation’s armoury; who receive money from Boko Haram and its federal sponsors to provide aerial support to the terrorists and assist the terrorists in bombing civilians and soldiers alike.