The Chief of Army of Staff, Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, said the 5,937 soldiers that recently passed out from Depot NA will be deployed to fight banditry, cattle rustling and related crimes in parts of the country.
Speaking during the passing out parade for the 86 Regular Recruit intake of the Depot Nigeria Army, in Zaria, on Saturday, Lagbaja, who was the special guest of honour and reviewing officer for the passing out parade, explained that the new soldiers would form part of the solution to numerous security challenges bedeviling the country.
According to him, the fresh products passing out would form part of the solution to the challenge of insurgency in the northeast, banditry and cattle rustling in the northwest.
He said: “They will fight the farmers-herders clashes in the North-Central, secessionist agitation and cultism in the South-East, militancy and vandalism of critical national assets and infrastructure in the South-South and South-West.”
Lagbaja believed that training is a continuous process in the military, saying that the Nigeria Army has put in place post-Depot training packages to help the soldiers master an array of weapons and equipment and enable them to be more efficient in the art of war.
Lagbaja stated that the army was improving on the existing welfare packages to enable soldiers cater for their medical, recreational and educational needs to ease career fulfillment. He congratulated the 5,937 recruits, saying that the life of a soldier is a life of sacrifice to his country and defending his allegiance.
He explained: “Sacrifice to go wherever you are ordered to, by land, sea or air; sacrifice to relegate personal comfort and assume duty to country as a primary concern.”
He reminded them that by becoming a soldier, one had accepted the highest call to duty any Nigerian could take up, adding that as soldiers, they had joined the unique league of exceptional Nigerians who had elected to abide by the requirements of exceptional discipline, loyalty, integrity and dedication to duty.
Lagbaja charged them not to disappoint the Nigeria Army and the country’s expectations on them.
