The Nigerian Army has assured Nigerians that it will continue to work for the common good of the nation in the discharge of its constitutional responsibilities.
Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai said this on Friday while addressing a news conference in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
This comes one day after global rights group Amnesty International accused the Nigerian Government of encouraging the impunity fuelling the increasing insecurity in the country.
The group had also accused the security agencies, including the military of ‘unacceptable lapses’ while condemning the killings in Plateau State.
While the military has rejected previous reports from the group indicting soldiers, the Army Chief said they remain committed to carrying out their duties in accordance with the constitution.
He, however, noted that while the security agencies have a duty to keep the nation safe, it is a collective responsibility that cannot be achieved without the support and conscious participation of patriotic citizens.
“We assure all Nigerians that the Nigerian Army is for you and we’ll continue to work for the common good of the country while professionally carrying out our constitutional responsibility,” Buratai said.
“I, therefore, solicit with us all to be our brothers’ keepers,” the Lieutenant General added in his address to mark the commencement of this year’s Army Day Celebrations.
Buratai further reminded the people, especially those affected by the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east that the military remains committed to their security.
According to him, this is why the Army recently launched an operation tagged “Operation Last Hold” in the region, to help displaced persons resettle and commence farming activities in their ancestral homes.
“The Nigerian Army is continuously making sacrifices towards ensuring unity and development of this great nation. We, therefore, solicit for the cooperation, prayer, and goodwill of all,” the Army boss added.
The 2018 Army Day celebration commemorating Nigerian Army’s 155th year of establishment would be marked in Monguno, one of the communities recovered from the insurgents in Borno.
In the meantime, some Nigerians who spoke to The DEFENDER have branded Amnesty International to have now turned an opposition group helping those sponsoring conflicts in the country spread their evils.
They told this media outfit that the NGO, supposedly international in nature, has continued to fail living up to its bidding by insisting on biased, unprobed information before coming up with its reports.
The Amnesty International however has been promised that posterity has a way of dealing with hypocrites in matter of information management and that its will not be as exception.
It will be recalled that some Nigerian groups in recent times have protested against Amnesty International calling it an “enemy of democracy” in the country.
It will also be recalled Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed recently told the board of global headquarters of the Amnesty International that it and its affiliating Civil Societies in Nigeria have never supported the Nigerian Government’s war against corruption and insecurity since it started on May 29, 2015.
