Boko Haram Spoilt My Son’s Career – General Ransome-Kuti’s Mother Pleads For Mercy

This is indeed painful! The 72-year-old mother of Brigadier General Enitan Ransome-Kuti, who was recently dismissed from the Nigerian Army, is distraught over her son’s plight.

After months of court-martial sitting, the Army convicted and jailed Ransome-Kuti over some of his roles in the war against Boko Haram. Sadly, his mother, Mrs Abimbola Avies’ blood pressure sprung up when she heard the sad news about her son.

In a chat with PremiumTimes, Gen. Ransome-Kuti's mum pleaded with the Army for mercy. Details:

"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.‎ 

“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.‎ 

“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. 

“I’ve never attended the court since the case started. 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. 

“I used to stay with the wife, so that I’ll be keeping her company. He’s always traveling, they always post him out to go and work. That’s why I use to follow them about to stay with the children and the wife. 

‎”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.”