DHQ silent as soldier accuses military of abandoning injured personnel

The Defence Headquarters has remained silent following a viral video in which a soldier accused the Nigerian military of abandoning injured soldiers in hospitals across the country.

In the eight-minute, 14-second video, the visibly angry soldier, speaking in Pidgin English, claimed that many wounded soldiers at the 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital in Kaduna and 7 Division Medical Services and Hospital in Maiduguri had been left to cater for their own treatment, despite sustaining injuries while serving the nation.

“Go to 44 [Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Kaduna] and see the number of soldiers who were injured and are treating themselves with their own money while the government is not doing anything,” the soldier lamented.

He alleged that some of the affected personnel had been in the hospitals since 2021, without receiving adequate medical attention from the government.

“Did they get injured in their father’s houses? Or was it not while defending this country that they sustained these injuries? Why is the government not paying them? Why is the government not treating them?” he asked.

The soldier also criticised lower-ranking soldiers who refused to support his claims, accusing them of complicity in the neglect of their injured colleagues.

“Any Order Rank [soldier] who sees this video and says that what I’m saying is nonsense, it shall never be well with that person,” he said.

Despite the growing outcry, the Defence Headquarters has yet to issue a formal statement addressing the soldier’s claims.

Efforts to get a response from military authorities were unsuccessful as of press time.

Both the Director of Defence Information, Brig. Gen. Tukur Gusau, and Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Markus Kangye, neither responded to questions sent to them nor answered calls made to them.