Mother of dismissed Brigadier-General Enitan Ransome-Kuti, Abimbola Davies has lamented the judgement passed on her son over a Boko Haram attack in Baga area of Borno State.
Speaking to Premium Times on Friday October 23, 2015 the 72-year old Mrs. Davies wondered why he was the only one punished, stressing that her son did not deserve the punishment.
She said: ”I wonder why they singled him out, and treat him in this manner.
“He has been wearing army uniform when he was 11 years old. You can imagine somebody that has been serving the nation for 40 years, that they now come to give this kind of judgment. I don’t know why.”
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Speaking on receiving news of the verdict, Mrs.Davies said she wept bitterly.
Her words: “It is his brother and his wife that were begging me, because I don’t know how my BP (blood pressure) just spring up immediately I heard the news.
“I was shaking, that how come? How can Boko Haram issue come and spoil somebody’s career? Somebody that has been serving the nation for 40 years.
“Right from NMS (Nigerian Military School), he was Drum Major there. And he’s one of the best students there. Many people liked him, teachers, everybody.
“He does the work as if the work belongs to him. That is why I wonder why they would come and judge him this way. I felt bad, I cried, I wept bitterly.”
It would be recalled that Brigadier-General Ransome Kuti was blamed for the January 3 attack on Baga, although a military source who spoke anonymously to Premium Times availed that that Ransome-Kuti had warned about the danger of keeping officers at Baga without adequate protection.
The source said: “It was too dangerous for them to stay at Baga. They were sitting there like lame ducks, too exposed.
“Because of the danger, Chad were the first to withdraw from the MNJTF in May, followed by Niger around November.
“It was after the attack in January that they now moved the base from Baga to Ndjamena.”
Another source said that Ransome-Kuti was said to have gone underground for 4 days after the attack.
He said: “Nobody was able to reach him and nobody could tell where he was.
“The suspicion is that he was roaming around Maiduguri in mufti while his troop were in disarray. He and his officers have to account for everything.”
Rebuffing the claim, Mrs.Davies said her son would never abandon his duty post, stressing that he had been battling Boko haram terrorists since 2009.
She said: ”He doesn’t come home often, because they post him from one end to another, far in the north there. They don’t bring him to Lagos, it’s that north that they have been taking him to.
“And when this thing started, when he was the commander of one unit at Nguru, he was the one that led his men that they drove these people away. They faced them and drove them away from Potiskum.
“He was the one that fought that fight and those people went away. Before they came back in full force. And they even called him to army headquarters to commend him for doing that work.”
She also availed that she has not had the courage to attend any of the hearing or the court martial.
“I’ve never attended the court since the case started,” she said.
“I can’t stand and be looking at my son in court. I just sit down at home, waiting for whatever they said they should tell me.”
She also said that she would not be satisfied if her son’s judgement was reduced to just a dismissal from the army.
She said: ”I’m just appealing to the military authority and Nigerians to help us beg them to send him back to his work.
“To give him back his rank and let him go back to work, because he doesn’t deserve this kind of judgment.
“He’s the one taking care of me and he has a wife and three children.
“And there are some other family members that he is taking care of. In fact, I will say he is a pillar in the family. Since he was detained in Abuja, everybody has been down and everybody is praying that they should release him because he’s our breadwinner.”
