No room for military takeover, Lagbaja reassures Nigerians

Force reorientates personnel on responsibilities

CHIEF of Army Staff ( COAS), Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, yesterday restated the commitment of the Nigerian Army to defend the nation’s democracy.

Addressing participants at a seminar on career planning and management, organised by the Army Headquarters in Abuja, the COAS said the force has no plan to truncate civil rule in the country.

He charged officers to remain above board in the discharge of their duties.

Lagbaja’s reassurance followed a series of coups in West and Central Africa in the last four years .

Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and most recently, Niger Republic - all members of the Economic Community of Western African States ( ECOWAS) - have witnessed military takeovers and threatened to pull out of the sub- regional body.

ALSO, the force has vowed not to tolerate any unethical conduct from officers against the civil society, particularly meddling into civilian issues.

Speaking at a one- day human rights lecture and sensitisation workshop for soldiers at the 33 Artillery Brigade, Bauchi, yesterday, Chief of Civil- Military Affairs, Nigerian Army Headquarters, Maj- Gen Nosakhare Ugboh, observed that some young soldiers might have joined the force with an intent to victimise civilians.

He said the event was to make officers understand their place and conduct themselves professionally in the larger society.

Ugboh said: “For some of you, who are old soldiers, there was a time when a soldier being in uniform was an open licence to do and undo. Those days are gone, and you can only look back to them with nostalgia.

“For the younger soldiers, some of you may have joined the Army for the sole purpose of having the power to lord it over citizens.”