The Nigerian Army on Tuesday, August 18, warned soldiers in Lagos state to desist from having constant disagreements with members of the public, saying it would no longer tolerate the excesses of any erring soldiers.
Major General Isidore Edet, the new general officer Commanding the 81 Division said, any soldier who tries to embarrass the service by treating civilians negatively would bear the consequences.
General Edet gave this warning in an address to soldiers of the 9th Brigade during a maiden visit to the brigade headquarters in Lagos.
He said: “For every act of indiscipline committed by any soldier, the soldier that commits such act of indiscipline must be ready to take the consequences. If your commanders try to shield you, you will face the consequences and your commanders will also face the consequences. I am saying this with all emphasis because in my 33 years of service, there had never been any unit that I go to that I compromise discipline.”
General Edet said that most of the problems between soldiers and civilians are been caused by bus fare, he said:“Most of you want to enter somebody’s ‘danfo’ (commercial buses) for free. Even when the driver of the bus must have told you that there’s another uniformed person already in the bus, you will still force yourself in and refuse to pay. Most of the time that is what brings about friction between soldiers and bus drivers and by extension, other members of the public.
I will resist this act. I will stand by the danfo drivers and their actions to resist such actions; and so when you take that as a right you will continue to have such problems and that is what I will never tolerate in my command. If voluntarily the bus driver allows you, good. But when you want to take it as a right and deprive the driver of his fare and it leads to fracas and people being brutalized and it becomes a media problem, I will not take it. You will pay for that,” he said.
He urged soldiers to be ready to carry out the marching orders by President Muhammadu Buhari for the Boko Haram insurgency to end in 3 months.
He said that discipline is the foundation of the military, stressing that discipline is everything that guides the force. He noted that the battle against Boko Haram would be won if army personnel work to ensure that the chief of army staff’s vision is achieved.
He said soldiers must work hard to win the people to their side, adding that the people are looking up to the Nigerian Army to protect them.
Meanwhile the Nigerian Armed Forces has responded to the recent audio released by Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the deadly Boko Haram group. Sani Kukasheka Usman, the military spokesperson, said it did not matter, at this phase, whether Shekau was dead or alive.
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