In what will come across as a really startling development, a soldier with the Nigerian army school of armour in Bauchi has killed himself.

The soldier was said to be one of those newly recruited in 2020, and his first posting had been the army’s school of armour in Bauchi.

“He was on duty alongside his colleagues. They were all discussing normal soldier things and suddenly, he pulled out his gun and shot himself in the stomach,” military sources have told TheCable.

“We couldn’t even rush him to the hospital as he died on the spot.”

His body has been deposited at the mortuary in Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital (ATBU), Bauchi.

The other soldiers he was with at the time of the incident have been locked in the guardroom, pending investigation.

The incident, sources said, has been communicated to the army headquarters, and a board had been set up in the barracks to investigate the matter.

Mohammed Yerima, the army spokesperson, was not immediately available to comment on the incident.

Before this incident, there have been other instances where soldiers killed themselves.

In 2017, a soldier committed suicide after killing a captain in Chibok, Borno state.

Another soldier also hung himself to death inside the barracks in Abuja in 2019.

In 2020, a soldier fighting Boko Haram insurgents committed suicide, leaving a note for his wife