Boko Haram members are freed but we’re stuck in jail, ‘mutinous’ soldiers cry out from Kirikiri

Soldiers serving jail terms at the Kirikiri Medium and Maximum Security Prisons have cried out to President Muhammadu Buhari to forgive them whatever wrongdoing they had committed and grant them pardon for the sake of their families.
The soldiers are those sentenced to death by a military court martial in 2014 for demanding weapons before going to confront Boko Haram terrorists, but whose cases were later reviewed and commuted to 10 years imprisonment by the Chief of Army Staff..
They include the 12 soldiers convicted in September 2014 and sentenced to death by a court martial for demanding for weapons when the General Officer Commanding the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army visited a military camp in Maiduguri, and the 58 others sentenced to death in December by another court martial for similar offence.
ICIR met the soldiers during an undercover visit to the prisons last week and interviewed them on how they’re faring and the conditions in the prisons.
The soldiers revealed that some Boko Haram suspects brought into the prisons had all regained freedom while they have continued languishing in jail.
A corporal, who acted as their spokesman, said: “The people we risked our lives fighting in Sambisa Forest who were brought here are being released one by one while we remain in jail. This is traumatic for all of us and we are begging our commander-in-chief to grant us pardon for the sake of God and our families.”
The soldiers also disclosed that the military authorities had stopped their salaries and their families had become impoverished.
“Most of us are the breadwinners of our families but we are in jail and our families have no one to take care of them. Our children have dropped out of school and we can’t help them,” said another soldier, as the others all nodded their heads in agreement.
They pointed at a soldier whose daughter was to write WAEC this year but had to drop out of school for lack of money.
But even life in the prison has been hectic and traumatic. The soldiers all complained about the exploitation by prison officials from the security men to the top.
They alleged that food ration in the prison was pathetic and that any prisoner who wanted to eat decent food had to prepare his own food or request his family to bring food to the prison.
“Prison officials request money from people who bring us food right from the gate to inside the prison. Sometimes a visitor who brings food pays as much as N3,000 each time they bring food into the prison otherwise they would not be allowed in. For God’s sake, how can we cope with this?” a soldier asked with anger on his face. BY EZEOGIDI JANEFRANCES