He was said to be “behaving abnormally” from the time he reported at his duty post in Badagry.
A soldier attached to 243 Recce Battalion Ibereko, Badagry, LCP Mahmud Sulaiman, who shot dead a Customs officer, C.N. Walter at Seme border in Badagry, Lagos was recently redeployed from the theatre of operation in the North-East, SaharaReporters has gathered.
Sulaimon had on Wednesday at Oloko checkpoint, Gbaji, on the Badagry-Seme expressway committed suicide after shooting Walter dead.
He was said to be “behaving abnormally” from the time he reported at his duty post in Badagry.
“He always cocked his AK-47 rifle fully loaded with ammunition, an action that made his Team Leader to report the matter to the Commanding Officer of 243 Recce Battalion, Col. Nicholas Rume, where he was serving.
“The commanding officer immediately ordered the retrieval of the weapon from him.
“In the process of retrieving the cocked weapon from him, which he resisted, he accidentally fired a shot and the stray bullet hit one Customs inspector, C.N. Walter.
“The Customs officer, who was attached to Seme border area command, was rushed to Badagry General Hospital for treatment. But unfortunately, the Customs officer died at about 6:40am on Thursday in the hospital. Subsequently, Sulaiman also shot himself and died on the spot,” NAN quoted a source as saying.
In April, 2021, a soldier identified as Kila Jima fighting Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East killed himself.
The soldier, a corporal in the Army’s 152 Battalion, Banki, Borno state was said to have suddenly cocked his rifle and shot himself in the head.
In March, another soldier, Bello Useni, with the Nigerian Army School of Armour in Bauchi committed suicide.
In September 2020, a lance corporal attached to the Army’s 27 Task Force Brigade in Buni Gari, Gujba Local Government Area of Yobe state, killed himself at his duty post.
In July 2020, a soldier in the Army’s 202 battalion in Bama, Borno state, killed a lieutenant who did not give him pass to visit his family.
In 2019, a soldier hanged himself in Abuja.
And in 2017, another soldier committed suicide after killing his superior officer.
Soldiers, especially those deployed to theaters of operation in the North-East, have always complained about poor welfare.