KEMI OMONIYI
The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor, has assured that no amount of pressure will make the military succumb and compromise the forthcoming elections.
Gen Irabor gave the assurance yesterday while briefing State House Correspondents at the weekly Ministerial briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
While acknowledging that the military always comes under intense pressure to compromise the election, he said that all necessary measures have been put in place to ensure that they remain neutral.
He said personnel are being trained to be more professional in their dealings while Standard Operations Practice (SOP) before, during and after the elections have been codified and distributed to them.
Answering a question on how the military was prepared to ward off pressure to compromise elections given the President’s directive for neutrality, he said: “I’m glad that you reiterated the Commander-In-Chief‘s directive to the Armed Forces.
“I’m afraid you say you have a worry. Rather than worry, I would rather think that trust should be anchored. Why?
“Of course, there will always be pressure from all quarters, wanting to induce security forces, not just the military, the security force – the Police. And that’s what criminal enterprise is all about. That is what something that is wrong is all about.
“But what makes the difference is the professional approach to dealing with those issues. And that’s what the military we are committed to doing.
“Now, the reason why we have ramped up our training in that regard, sensitisation, a lot of engagement across, you know, the formations and units, is being undertaken. And then, more so to no articulate code of conduct for all our personnel, which has been done and distributed.
“So what, why should they act before, during and after the elections, these are being codified in the SOP that have been issued to them. So, it remains the duty of the commanders to ensure that the directive, as indicated, and the contents of the SOP is adhered to by every personnel in the armed forces.
“So, please cease from worrying. Rather, trust and also engage others to trust that we will keep faith to these desires.”
Continuing, the Defence Chief noted that the armed forces have added filip to their engagement across the country to tackle contemporary and emerging threats, putting in place concontinence plans to facilitate the smooth conduct of the 2023 General Elections in order to support the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in conjunction with other security agencies.
He said efforts were also in place to safeguard critical national infrastructure, assuring that the armed forces were committed to meeting their constitutional requirement to ensure a safe and secure Nigeria for the citizens.
Meanwhile, the CDS denied allegation that soldiers were targeting some people in parts of the country, particularly those in the southeast, for rougher treatment, saying that it was impossible as the military was composed of people from all parts of the federation.
He explained: “The Armed Forces are peopled by people from 774 local government of this country. And there is no single unit or formation where you have only a group of soldiers coming from a particular part of the country.
“So, what will be the interest? Sometimes, the consciousness of the people is what has been transmitted to their consciousness. Perhaps, it might be necessary to interrogate them and see how we can re-conscientise our people to know that we are in this together.
“What do I stand to gain? Yes, I’m the CDS. I know the officers and men that I lead, I know what we have transmitted into them by way of training, I know the fundamentals, our ethics. So, it’s what you don’t know that make illusions.
“And I think I will also join to appeal to you, to re-conscientise our people for them to know the apparatus of the state in terms of looking at the issue of security are for the good of the people and not against the people. We are not against the people.
“So, there’s no way the military will go and shoot people. It’s not possible. We won’t do that and it was not done during EndSARS.”
Gen Irabor spoke on the key achievements of the military in the effort to keep the country safe including more recruitment into all branches of the security services, routing of insurgency and banditry as well as the action to curtail oil theft leading to increase in crude oil production.
He also said that over 300,000 people have been freed from the hands of abductors since 2014 while refugees who fled the northeast due to insurgency have started to return.
The Defense Chief also said that former insurgents now being trained will graduate in February next year before their eventual reintegration into the society.
On the fight against banditry, he said the armed forces have strangulated bandits’ supply chain and destroyed several hideouts.
According to him, the military efforts have averted several communal clashes and restored socio-economic activities in troubled areas while several criminal elements were arrested including drug dealers, weapon suppliers, kidnappers, cultists and religious extremist.
On crude oil theft, he noted Nigeria’s colossal loses of oil revenue as at 2014 that was about N1.92 trillion, saying that piracy and kidnapping were unprecedented just as several illegal pipeline connections were used to steal crude oil and illegal entry of unauthorised vessels undetected.
He disclosed that between January and July 2022, Nigeria lost about 437,000 barrels of oil per day owing to criminal entities.
Irabor said it was against this backdrop of a solution that Falcon Eye Maritime intelligence facility was commissioned in Jul 2021, offshore Patrol Vessels were purchased, and operational deployments and capabilities were rejigged.
“The President directed the
CDS to coordinate the kinetic and non-kinetic interventions to curb oil thefts. Through several joint operations, security operatives destroyed 959 metal tanks, 737 ovens, 452 dug-out pits, 355 cooking pots, 179 wooden boats, recovered 35.8 million litres of crude, 22 million litres of diesel, 25,000 litres of PMS, 207 pumping machine and 12 welding machines.”
