World Stage
13 Feb 2011
Abuja (WorldStage Newsonline)-- Nigerian Army is considering the request of the Presidential Amnesty Office to recruit a number of transformed Niger Delta ex-militants into the Army, according to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Onyeabo Azubuike Ihejirika.
Lt.-General Ihejirika disclosed this while responding to the request by the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chief Executive Officer of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, who paid a courtesy call on him in his Abuja
The Chief of Army Staff, according to a statement by the Head of Media and Communication of the Amnesty Office, Henry Ugbolue, pointedly declared that the request to have a number of the Niger Delta ex-combatants join the Army was not out of place.
He expressed the firm optimism that the Nigerian Army could indeed tap from the vast experience of the transformed ex-militants in the area of professional diving , swimming and other amphibious activities.
The Army, he also said, may consider recruiting ex-combatants with proven technical or artisan abilities into its Engineering Corps.
Gen. Ihejirika was however quick to point out to the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta that the decision to recruit Niger Delta ex-combatants into the Nigerian Army would be a collective one and will be considered by the military high command.
“We will consider this request. It is true that the Armed Forces do not recruit persons with criminal record but these ones, the former combatants in the Niger Delta, are not absolute criminals and we shall take into cognisance the fact that they have gone through non-violence transformational training,” he said.
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