He said that if offences committed by
the affected soldiers were so grave as to prevent the soldiers from being in
the unit, a bold step should be taken to jail and to keep away the offender as
a result of the security situation.
He said that the Army would not jump
into dismissing people as was the case in the past because of the prevailing
security situation in the country.
“The situation we are facing today is
such that you cannot afford to discard any of them as was the case many years
back when we had the luxury to do that.
“It is also for the reason that I
have advised commanders to mellow down in dismissing soldiers who are already
trained and have acquired enough knowledge of use of arms.”
The Army chief, who said that the
Nigerian Army had progressed beyond the era of the nation’s intervention in the
crises in Liberia and Sierra Leone, announced the establishment of a special
unit whose focus is to monitor the activities of troops during operations.
He said that the Army was
collaborating with the United States AFRICOM, in the quest to have a standing
special operations unit which could be transformed into a special brigade.
He also said that the Army had
established a standing full-fledged Army Headquarters Reserve Battalion known
as 101 battalion and the new battalion would be inaugurated soon.
Ihejirika, who put the strength of
the Battalion being led by a Colonel at 100, said that soldiers of the new
battalion had been equipped up to 50 per cent of the basic requirement.
He explained that even though the
Army might appear to be overstretched, the existence of the new reserve
battalion clearly indicated the readiness and preparedness of the Army to take
on more challenges.
Ihejirika emphasised the place of
capacity building as a vital tool of transformation in the Army.
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