The commander, 2 Brigade of Nigerian Army, Port-Harcourt, Brig. General Stevenson Olabanji has expressed disappointment over comments credited to the minister of transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi.
The Army commander said his loyalty is not to Amaechi or any minister for that matter. Olabanji stated:
” It’s indeed regrettable that the minister will go about on radio stations to politicize the Nigerian Army. What right has a minister to order the deployment of soldiers to any part of the country?
The minister was simply playing to the gallery, and should not be taken seriously.
The Nigerian Army is still aware of a Supreme Court judgement in 2015, that prohibits the use of the military in elections. The Army only serve as backup in an event that the Police is overpowered.
And the Nigerian Police haven’t told us they will be needing our support.
Besides, INEC have to write us too, if they will need our services in the forthcoming rerun elections. And up till now, I haven’t received any request from INEC to serve as backup to the Nigerian Police.
Let me state very clearly, that the military will not be part of the elections. If you see any military man, at any polling unit, kindly alert us, on the telephone numbers that will be made public soon ”
The above clarification by the military came on the heels, of the braggadocious comments by the minister of transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, who claimed to have received a power of attorney from President Buhari to deploy soldiers to Rivers state.
