CORRUPTION IN THE ARMY EXPOSED: A BRAVE SOLDIER FROM OPERATION LAFIYA DOLE WRITES PRESIDENT BUHARI AN OPEN LETTER. By Patriotic Soldier. Operation LAFIYA DOLE. Damaturu, Yobe State, 3/11/2017.

His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, Commander in Chief of the Nigerian Arrmed Forces, Presidential Villa,
Abuja.

Your Excellency, Having read the online correspondence between Dr. Idris Ahmed of CUPS and our Army spokesman, Brigadier Generral S.K. Usman, I have decided to take a major risk and write to your Excellency directly over this issue.
Sir, I am a course-mate of Pvt.
Abdulrauf Aliyu, who Oga S.K.
claimed that he has gone AWOL.

We trained at the same company,
Depot Nigerian Army, Zaria, Kaduna State. We are presently posted to Operation LAFIYA DOLE. On behalf of all the colleagues of Pvt. Abdulrauf Aliyu, I categorically
refute the allegation that Pvt.
Abdulrauf Aliyu deserted the Army. The Sections 59 - 63 of the Armed Forces Act, Cap A20, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, as quoted by Oga S.K., has always
been mentioned by our superiors,
to protect themselves and
antagonise us, whenever they have done mischief.

Your Excellency, the case of Pvt.
Abdulrauf Aliyu is actually not an
isolated one. There are many such
cases of soldiers who got wounded at the battlefront. It is true, some are well looked after, as mentioned by Oga S.K. Usman in his press release. Unfortunately, due to corruption in the system, some unfortunate soldiers, mostly from less privileged backgrounds, are left to fend for themselves. Like myself, Pvt. Abdulrauf Aliyu comes from a humble family. He sustained life threatening injuries in the abdomen during a routine
operation. The initial first aid
treatment and medical care that he received was very inadequate. With full Army permission, Pvt Abdulrauf Aliyu and his family paid for his transfer to University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital. Unfortunately, the care he received in Maiduguri Teaching Hospital too was inadequate. Eventually, his family had to pay for his transfer to a specialist facility in Sokoto.
Your Excellency, corruption in the
Army is REAL, and it is killing us.


Every man and woman who
decided to join the Army knows the risks. While we expect to die in the hands of the enemy, we don’t expect to die in the hands of the Nigerian Army, due to corruption and criminal negligence. Just the other week, about 14 (I am not sure of the exact numbers) of our colleagues died in the hands of Boko Harram, who attacked the Army camp. The circumstances surrounding their unnecessary death warrants a full investigation by his Excellency. Sir, you will be shocked of the outcome. The bodies of the slain heroes are still lying here in Damaturu, Yobe State.
The story of this incidence has
hardly been officially published by
the Army or Nigerian media.
Attached is the picture of the
commander of the camp. He too
died in the attack.

Your Excellency, this is the third
month in a row that we have been denied of our operations
allowance. We have to rely ONLY
on our meager salary for
everything. From battalion
commanders, to Company and
Sectors leaders, we are all in debt,
because our salaries are not
enough to sustain us at the
battlefront while feeding our
families back at home. It is a big
shame that we have joined the
Army to defend the civilians, yet we have to go to the civilians in town to borrow money to fend for ourselves at the battlefront.

Take for instance the food that we
are fed. Most of the times it is not
fit for human consumption. I attach for your perusal, your Excellency, the lunch that was fed to us this afternoon (3/11/2017). As you can clearly see, there is not a single piece of meat or fish in it. The taste of the food is so bad that we have to add surplus salt to be able to eat it. This is also dangerous for our health. A plate of our food per soldier is probably about two hundred Naira (N200).

It is said that the Federal
Government spends about fourteen thousand Naira (N14,000) on each prisoner in Nigeria. Here, at the battlefront in Operation LAFIYA DOLE, the Army spends about six hundred Naira (N600) per day per soldier on feeding us, while in reality billions of Naira is appropriated per year for this purpose. Your Excellency, we are treated like animals. Most of us are afraid to talk because of the dire consequence.
As the Commander in Chief of the
Armed Forces, your Excellency,
kindly investigate. There is
corruption in the Army. Brave
soldiers are needlessly dying.