Musdapha Ilo, Maiduguri

The 7 Division of the Nigerian Army is set to institute a military board of inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the conduct of soldiers who fired sporadic shots Wednesday in Maimalari cantonment Maiduguri.

The incident occurred when the corpses of four soldiers who died in an ambush while returning from patrol duties in Chibok was being conveyed to the morgue.

Some soldiers fired shots sporadically in the air when the General Officer Commanding, GOC, of the newly established 7 Division of the Nigeria Army, Maiduguri, Ahmadu Mohammed, a major general, visited the Maimalari Barrack from where some of the killed soldiers were mobilized.

The soldiers were said to have been protesting what they described as a wrong order given by their boss which led to the killing of over 10 of their colleagues.

A military source within the barrack told journalists that the soldiers were sent on an operation in the ongoing counter-insurgency campaign and had indicated their willingness to spend the night in a village on Tuesday but were ordered by the army leadership in the division to proceed to Maiduguri in the night.

The order, however, proved disastrous as the soldiers were ambushed by Boko Haram insurgents who killed ten of them and injured others.

A statement issued on Wednesday evening by the Director of Defence Information, Chris Olukolade, said the matter would be investigated by a military board but assured that normalcy has returned to the barracks.