Army Warns Personnel against Use of Social Media to Engage Authorities

Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja

The Nigerian Army yesterday warned personnel against the use of social media to engage authorities, saying any officer found culpable of such acts would be severely dealt with.

The army, also, assured the officers that it was determined to provide them with adequate accommodation across the federation especially those at the frontline.

The warning was revealed in a statement the spokesman of the army, Brigadier-General Mohammed Yerima issued yesterday while debunking claims that a planned army housing scheme was designed to deny some non-commissioned officers (NCOs) participation in the scheme.

The statement said members of the Nigerian Army have established mechanisms of responding to administrative issues and resorting to social media is not one of them.

“Any personnel caught using social media to engage the authorities will be severely dealt with. It is however curious that a scheme meant to benefit soldiers and families could be so flagrantly twisted in the social media using names and numbers that are alien to the Nigerian Army. The motive for this kind of strange act will ultimately be uncovered.”

The statement added that the signatories to the petition circulating on social media, who claimed to be writing on behalf of Nigerian Army soldiers, were fictitious names and numbers which were non-existent in the Nigerian Army records.

It said the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Ibrahim Attahiru, met an army housing scheme in the pipeline and constituted a committee to understudy its feasibility and desirability.

“Questionnaire was subsequently designed by the committee for soldiers to bare their minds on the scheme and to ascertain those who are interested in it.

It was still at this stage of administering the questionnaire to soldiers that agent provocateurs seized the moment to demonise the scheme with toxic narratives”, it said.

Meanwhile, the army chief had expressed his commitment to the improvement of troops’ welfare.

Attahiru made this known on Friday at Maimalari Cantonment, Maiduguri during his Sallah visit to troops.

The COAS, who commissioned two blocks of accommodation for officers and soldiers, said one of the cardinal points of achieving his vision for the Nigerian Army was to improve troops’ welfare, especially those at the frontline.

He added that more accommodation for troops would be constructed across the army barracks in the country.

Similarly, Attahiru approved two 100 KVA generators to provide backup power for the newly commissioned accommodation. He further pledged to support Operation Hadin Kai with better platforms that would expedite the defeat of terrorists across the Northeast and Nigeria at large.

Attahiru, who arrived in Maiduguri in company of Chief of Operations (Army), Maj. General IM Yusuf and other principal staff officers of the Army Headquarters, earlier listened to an operational update by the theatre commander Maj. General Farouk Yahaya.

He thereafter commended the troops for their gallantry and for turning challenges to gains.

He further assured them of President Muhammadu Buhari’s support at all times.

The COAS thereafter hosted troops including wounded and recuperating soldiers for the Eid el Fitr luncheon where he personally served the troops with lunch and drinks.

He prayed for speedy recuperation of the troops and assured them of his support at all times.