By Ada Obeleagu, YeyeNews.com, November 23, 2021
The Nigerian Army have said their inability to prevent bandits from returning to the Abuja-Kaduna expressway to kidnap travelers is due to all the female soldiers deployed to the important road getting married in quick succession. This revelation was made by a senior military personnel at the Defense Headquarters who spoke to YeyeNews.com on the condition of anonymity. The source who is a Colonel in the army said the sudden marriage of all the female officers deployed to the flashpoint has created logistics challenge for the military high command.
“The army deployed female soldiers to protect travelers on that road because we know the bandits will not be so fearsome in attacking them. Their culture and religion actually enjoins them not to hurt women. That strategy worked well until the soldiers started getting married one after the other. The last two actually got married in October to spouses they met on that road. The bandits only returned after noticing the absence of the female soldiers on the road”, the source told YeyeNews reporter. He further revealed that currently there is a dearth of female soldiers due to the high rate at which the “bloody civilians” are marrying them off.
But an army corporal in Abuja disagreed with the reason given by the army colonel for the absence of the soldiers along the expressway. “The absence of the female soldiers there is not due to marriage. Marriage does not discharge a soldier from her duties. The army high command’s assumption that those bandits will respect women and not attack the female soldiers turned out to be wrong. These female soldiers were persistently harassed on that road. Some were even kidnapped and forcefully married off to some bandit leaders. The DHQ had to quietly withdraw them from the highway. We therefore left the road for the police to protect travelers but you know those ones are only interested in making deals with the bandits to line their pockets”, the source said.
