The Nigerian military has suffered yet another security breach as nine soldiers on Monday escaped from a military guardroom at Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri, Borno State, SaharaReporters has learnt.

Maimalari Cantonment is the Nigerian Army barracks and the headquarters of the Nigerian Army’s 7th Division.

Top military sources told SaharaReporters that most of the escaped soldiers were arrested by the military over alleged links to the Boko Haram terrorism.

They were alleged to be involved in arms trafficking to terrorist groups operating in Nigeria’s North-East.

“There was a jailbreak on Monday around 0215 hours at the military Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri, Borno State. Nine personnel detained mostly for dealing in arms running with terrorists escaped,” a military source told SaharaReporters.

The source added that one of the escaped soldiers had been recaptured, while efforts are ongoing to locate and apprehend the remaining eight.

“One of them was arrested after the incident in the bush. It’s a very major security breach, imagine something like this happening inside a military barracks, so shameful,” another source added.

SaharaReporters had in the past reported how a former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Leo Irabor (retd.) condemned the increase in cases of military personnel aiding and abetting terrorists and bandits in the country.

Irabor while in active service had in a letter sent to all commanders of various operations and exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters asked them to sensitise their officers on the implication of collaborating with the enemy.

“Recent happenings in various TOOs reveal an increase in cases of aiding and abetting by personnel. This development was revealed in different reports of arrests of military personnel within a shot period of time,” the letter signed on behalf of the ex-CDS by one CE Oji had read.

“It would be recalled that a soldier was arrested by a covert intelligence Team for conniving with a confirmed terrorist informant known as Babagana Kura in Bama LGA, Borno State.

“The arrests of these personnel are indicative of inside action that has continued to aid the adversary, pertinently with immediate or potential impact on operations.”

In 2022, a personnel named Lance Corporal Abdullahi Jibrin, an instructor with the Nigerian Army battalion in Geidam, Yobe State committed suicide.

He took his life after he was arrested for allegedly conniving with Boko Haram insurgents who attacked Yobe communities recently.

Jibrin, who disappeared from his duty post was said to have been sighted among the Boko Haram terrorists that attacked Geidam town in same year.

Military sources had said the soldier was tracked by army intelligence unit and was found in Gashua, some hundreds kilometers from his duty post. (SaharaReporters, excluding headline)