Nigerian Army Chief tells Men to Stop Leaking Information to Insurgents

This is a very serious problem if this allegation is proven to be true...

Nigerian Armed Forces (Photo: Wikipedia)

Ihejirika to soldiers: Stop leaking information to insurgents 

Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant Ihejirika, on Wednesday, warned military officers against linking information on troops operations, warning that anyone caught would be severely punished.

Ihejirika, who spoke in Abuja at the Nigerian Army Transformation Seminar 2013 on the theme, ‘Building Capacity of the Nigerian Army to Meet Contemporary Challenges,’ disclosed that the officer that gave out information about the troops that were attacked at Okene had been apprehended.

Chairman, Senate House Committee on Defence, George Sekibo, assured that the release of the Boko Haram insurgents as directed by President Goodluck Jonathan was not to jeopardise the essence of the operation.

Sekibo said that the president, in giving the directive,  might have seen ahead and as a politician, he had to protect the interest of the nation and that was why he was showing good faith in the state of emergency and not to witch-hunt anybody.

Giving the warning on the leakage of operation information, Ihejirika said: “I let me warn officers and soldiers who indulge in giving out information, both from Army Headquarters and other formations, that giving certain vital pieces of information, one way or the other, work negatively in our operations. As you are aware, a soldier gave out information about the movement of our troops back from Mali, the troops that were attacked at somewhere close to Okene.

“The soldier has been apprehended and he is going to be court-martialed. There are also some others that have been found to be posting negative comments on the internet. Some, indeed, communicate with insurgents. I want to state that any officer or soldier caught leaking information will be disciplined severely,” Ihejirika stressed.

Against the backdrop of the rumour about lack of manpower in the Nigerian Army to tackle insurgents, the Army Chief said that they were always battle ready against any insurgency.

“We want to have a standing special operation unit that will perform if we have a special operation today, in collaboration with AFRICON. We are training over 1,000 soldiers for the Navy. We have also established a standing full-fledged Army Headquarters reserve Battalion, called 101 Battalion.

According to him, the commissioning would be done very soon.

Source: Nigerian Tribune