Abuja, Aug 20 (IANS): Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff Kenneth Minimah has said some 40 soldiers in north-eastern Nigeria, who refused to fight the Islamist Boko Haram group, would be court-martialled and sentenced to death if convicted of mutiny.

He stressed that the army had no room for rebels, adding that punishment for soldiers and officers involved in mutiny remained death sentence, MENA news agency reported Wednesday.

According to him, soldiers caught sabotaging the ongoing war against insurgents in the northeast would be seriously sanctioned.

He said it was an offence for any soldier to sabotage the ongoing campaign to rid Nigeria of insurgency and terrorist elements.

He also warned wives of soldiers in all military formations in the country to desist from any form of protest against postings of their husbands in any part of the country to fight insurgents.

Minimah insisted that the soldiers’ wives had no right to stage protests on behalf of their husbands, because they were not enlisted in the army.