By Goodluck Ikiebe.
The Nigerian Army (NA) has reacted to the insinuation making the rounds on social media, alleging complicity of troops of the Nigerian Army in the kidnap of the Methodist Prelate in Abia state recently.
While the Nigerian Army expresses concern and sympathy for the victim of the heinous crime and shares in his pains, the insinuation that troops are complicit in the kidnap incident, premised on findings of investigations and therefore,cannot be swallowed hook line and sinker.
The Army Spokesman, Brig- General Onyema Nwachukwu, in a statement in Abuja said the allegation, therefore, raised some pertinent questions yet unanswered.
“Given, the spate of insecurity in the region, the question would be, was the issue reported to the unit covering the area? Did the Methodist Church take the NA into confidence while negotiating the ransom with the kidnappers? No formal complaint has been received by the unit.
“More worrisome is the fact that it was alleged that the ransom was paid in less than 24 hours. Was the ransome paid to troops? These are questions that beg for answers”, he queried.
“Moreso, the NA unit has not received any debrief from the Prelate or the Methodist Church.
It is, therefore, important to state that troops are deployed at Forward Operating Base(FOB), Okigwe and in front of the Abia State University, Uturu and no information was made available to them or to 14 Brigade or any other formation, except the information making the rounds in the social media”.
General Nwachukwu clarified that troops’ deployment in the Nigerian Army was not done with considerations for ethnic affiliation, “hence a deployment of troops of Fulani ethnic extraction, who, as alleged by the Prelaten carried out the dastardly act is not our practice or modus operandi in the NA.
“Given our professional disposition and zero tolerance for any misconduct in the Nigerian Army , we will take this weighty allegation seriously and approach for the allegation”, he said.
Our Correspondent recalls that on Tuesday, the Methodist Prelate, Samuel Uche, had alleged that some military personnel from the North were aiding the kidnappers in their activities in the region.
The Prelate noted that, “all they said was that we should follow them; that they were not actually against Nigerian citizens but against the government, that the government is a bad government.”
According to the cleric, the leader of the group is about 35 years old while the others are about 18.
“He called on the government to take a decisive action otherwise, what is happening in the north will be a child’s play.”
He said that it was the Methodist Church, Nigeria and members of the church that made efforts to secure his release and not security agencies of the government.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.
