There is some disquiet among men of a special military unit fighting Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State as soldiers claim that they have not been paid their allowances for two months.

A soldier in the unit told the www.icirnigeria.org last week that troops of AHQ Strike Group, which is a select team of marksmen used to launch special attack operations against Boko Haram insurgents in different parts of Borno State, are yet to be paid their N30,000 monthly operations allowances for November and December 2015.

This is made worse by the fact that salaries for December are still to be paid, leaving many of them to spend the Yuletide and New Year season in “desperate conditions.”

“This is certainly not what we expected from the new military authorities,” the source, who did not want to be named for fear of being victimised, said.

The AHQ Strike Group, this website learnt, is a special assault squad with highly trained marksmen and snipers who are the first to attack Boko Haram strongholds before other soldiers are brought to take over.

The squad, stationed somewhere in Maiduguri, which we cannot reveal for security reasons, has been used in recovery operations of cities previously held or threatened by the insurgents, including Sambisa Forest, Dikwa, Banki, Bama, and, most recently, Gamboru Ngala.

The special squad is also used, when the need arises, to secure Maiduguri and its surrounding areas.

After capturing an area held by Boko Haram, the squad is then withdrawn back to its base, where it awaits signals for other operations.

“We are finding it hard to survive since we use our money to buy food because the food army gives us most times you can’t eat it,” another member of the group, who can also not be named, said.

“If you go to our dustbin, it is mainly filled with food served by army cooks because soldiers feel it is unpalatable,” he lamented.

The www.icirnigeria.org learnt that due to similar complaints by troops in the past and in order to avoid diversion of money meant for soldiers, army authorities recently abolished cash payments of troops’ allowances and opted for electronic payments directly to the soldiers’ bank accounts.

The soldiers were thus asked to submit their account details, including sort codes, a situation that initially got them excited because, as one of them explained, “It meant that we would not have cash on us and our seniors would not be able to deduct our money on flimsy excuses.”

It was alleged that before now if a soldier committed an offence, his commander would surcharge him and the money deducted from his ops allowance which was previously paid in cash.

The media coordinator of Operation Lafiya Dole, the counter-insurgency slogan, Mustapha Anka, a Colonel, did not answer calls to his phone or reply a text message sent to him.

Army spokesperson, Sani Usman, a Colonel, who also did not answer his phone, sent an SMS asking the www.icirnigeria.org to send him a text message but did not reply when it was sent.