LAGOS — The military, yesterday, broke its silence on the controversy surrounding the shift in election date, saying its position had no political undertone.
Rather, it said the reason for its suggestion for a shift was to enable it take delivery of the long awaited weapons with which to tackle terrorists in the North eastern part of the country.
Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, gave the explanation while receiving drugs and other items worth over N70 million donated by the Association of Pharmaceutical Importers of Nigeria, APIN to assist the Nigerian Armed Forces in the war against insurgents.
He attributed the delay in the delivery of the weapons to the seeming prolonged action in tackling the Boko Haram insurgents, boasting that since the arrival of the weapons, the military had made visible head way.
He said: “I do not want to bring politics into it, whoever wants to bring politics into what we are doing, it’s left for him. I want whoever is saying that to know that war machines are not picked up from the shelf, if it were, we would have got them.
“When you make orders, it takes time to produce and it takes time also to train on them. So, we did not place the orders today, we had placed orders before now and when they started coming, we asked for more time to combat the insurgents before the elections. I can guarantee you that there is no politics in the demand for shift in date, it is just because we were receiving the equipment.”
Calling on the need for the civilian populace to support the military in the ongoing fight against insurgency, Badeh said: “Part of the overall strategy of tackling insecurity is to build synergy with the civil populace, especially for support and vigilance in reporting the activities of suspicious elements and the movements of insurgents.
“This is borne out of our strong conviction that the war against insurgents is not a war for the armed forces alone. As I have always said, when the military is at war, it is not the military alone that is at war, rather it is the entire nation.
“Accordingly, all instrument of national power, ranging from diplomatic, informational, military to economic are employed to ensure that threats to national security are contained and defeated.”
Commending the APIN and other companies who earlier made similar donations to the military, Badeh noted that such gesture was a clear demonstration of concern and support for the military in the ongoing war against terrorists, despite antics of some unpatriotic persons.
Earlier, President of the APIN, Sir Nnamdi Obi, disclosed that the association was “making available to the Nigerian Armed Forces over N70 million worth of drugs that cut across various therapeutic class.(Vanguard)
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