Army Chief: Soldier Who Made Derogatory Remarks About Sanwo-Olu Apprehended
Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Taoreed Lagbaja, yesterday, condemned the derogatory remarks heaped on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu by a soldier over the recent arrest of a soldier plying motorcycle on one-way traffic.
Lagbaja made the condemnation while fielding questions from newsmen in Enugu during the commissioning of a project.
The army chief said the soldier, who appeared on a viral video on social media, making derogatory comments about the governor had been apprehended.
“The soldier that was apprehended by the Governor of Lagos State while plying on the one way does not represent the Nigerian army because in every respect it contravenes what the army stands for, which is discipline as an army and it contravenes the Constitution and the laws of Lagos and so we frown at that as an army”, he said.
The army chief noted that after a thorough investigation, only one soldier went on social media to verbally attack the Governor of Lagos State and not several soldiers as the media alleged.
“Every other comic act that you have seen on social media, they are not personnel of the Nigerian Army. We have investigated that. From the mode of the dressing of some of them, you will know that they are not personnel of the Nigerian Army. “One of them was running the cap badge upside down and you will know that that is not the personnel of the Nigerian Army and from the utterances that these people made, you will note the angle from which they’re talking”, he said.
Lagbaja noted that “they were talking politics not the army. So we will leave it like that for the ones that are of the army, we will investigate it and it will be treated accordingly”.
He also added that the Chief of Administration, Nigerian Army, Maj Gen Jimmy Akpo, had sent a directive to all formations and units of the Nigerian army to further sensitise troops on the need to be disciplined and abide by the laws of every community where they are deployed.
“So we are serious about upholding laws, upholding rules and remaining disciplined and we will enforce that on our personnel,” he said.
