Family Raises Alarm over Health, Fate of Detained Soldier
By Our Reporter
The family of John Chukwuemeka Obasi, the Nigerian soldier detained by the Nigerian military authority in Maiduguri, Borno state, for publicly expressing his frustration at being unable to visit his family due to his inability to afford the transport fare, has raised an alarm over his health, safety and fate.
AnambraDaily can authoritatively report that wife and aged parents of the embattled soldier have become traumatized following their inability to see or spend time with him for over a year. A family member who spoke to this paper on that matter disclosed that the anxiety within the family circle had risen considerably following the refusal of his employer, the military, to disclose the offence for which he has remained incarcerated and what punishment it attracts as stipulated by military law.
“I lack the words to express how we feel over this whole matter right now. First, our brother has been sent to the most dangerous part of the country to fight insurgency and yet the military authorities are not paying him well. In the end, when he finally had the opportunity to visit home, he was unable to transport himself,” the soldier’s sibling, who simply gave his name as Udoba, said.
According to him, since his brother married his wife over a year ago, he had barely consummated the marriage; and had not had the opportunity to spend time with his wife and family.
“He did his traditional wedding exactly this time last year but has not been home since then. We were all expecting him to come home and enjoy himself having survived the insurgency only for us to hear that he has been locked up because he lamented his predicament on social media.
“His wife and our aged father and mother are seriously traumatized at the moment. Our parents who barely survived the 1991 crises in Bantaje, Taraba state without any of their household properties and are experiencing the same kind of trauma again, at this moment. We, his siblings are equally traumatized because we don’t know about his physical and mental condition right now. We are afraid of what may happen to him.”
Chukwuemeka had, in a video clip that went viral on social media, lamented how he spent one year in the bush in Borno and was given a pass to visit his family but could not go because of his N50,000 salary. Speaking in pidgin English, he said, “See wahala oo, the Nigerian Army gave me a pass as I spent one year in Maiduguri. Today, they gave me a pass to go and see my family.
“As I left the bush, I reached the park and they (transporters) told me that from here to my town is N35,000. I calculated it and going and coming back is N70,000 and N50,000 is my salary that I was paid this month. I don’t have any option again; I’m going back to the bush.”
It is speculated that the soldier was being detained because of the video which the military authorities might have considered embarrassing.
It will be recalled that the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, had been quoted in the media to have confessed that soldiers and military officers earn less than N50,000 as monthly salaries while generals and soldiers on operations get N1,200 for feeding daily. The CDS disclosed this during an interview where he said that Nigerian soldiers and military officers were doing well and therefore should be paid salaries that were worth the jobs they do so as to encourage them to do more.
Musa was quoted to have said: “The issue of ration cash allowance where we feed, any time we are on operations, I, as a general, am fed on N1,200 per day with my soldiers, from the first general to the last soldier; the same amount. That is what we manage with.
“My soldiers collect less than N50,000 for salary a month. We all know the situation on ground. My appeal is for them to have salaries that are worth the work they are doing. We deserve to have that so that it will encourage them to do more. We have a lot of them that have been injured, families separated for a very long time. These are the morale aspect of it that we check to actually ginger the troops to want to do more.”
Chukwuemeka’s brother said the family found it strange that he was detained for venting his frustration even after the army chief had already lamented their challenge. “We couldn’t understand why they had to punish him for speaking out what is already general knowledge and what the Chief of Defence Staff had already lamented about.
“If what he said on that trending video was against the law, we think that the offence and the punishment for it, as stipulated by their law, should be made known to our brother. We also expect them to temper justice with mercy by releasing him to come home and spend time with his wife.”
He described the embattled soldier as a jovial, hardworking and respectful fellow who would never deliberately go against the law of the land he was protecting.
“He is a jolly good fellow. He is in love with the work of a soldier right from his teenage years; one of his hobbies is photography and videography and you can see that on his Facebook and Instagram pages where he has several amazing pictures and videos. Instead of punishing him, the military should find better ways to utilise his talent beyond being a combat soldier,” he said.
This paper learnt that although the embattled soldier had been taken to Abuja, no official statement had been released so far on his situation.
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