Our reporter/ The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, has restated the commitment of the Nigerian Army to defend the nation’s democracy.
Lagbaja, who made the commitment on Tuesday while addressing participants at a seminar on career planning and management organised by the Army headquarters in Abuja, said the Army has no plans to truncate democracy in the country.
The COAS charged officers of the Nigerian Army to remain above board in the discharge of their professional duties.
“Permit me to seize this opportunity to reiterate that the Armed Forces of Nigeria, particularly the Nigerian Army has come to terms with the country’s choice of democracy as the preferred system of governance,” he said.
“We are therefore agents of democracy and have no desire to truncate it. The Nigerian Army will continue to defend our constitution and not suspend it for whatever reason.
“Our elected leaders have to lead while the military does its job as enshrined in our constitution. Nigerian Army personnel must therefore remain professional and be above board as they discharge their constitutional duties.”
The commitment by the COAS followed the series of coups in West and Central Africa which have experienced at least seven military takeovers in the last four years.
The defence headquarters recently denied reports that some officers were planning to unseat the government of President Bola Tinubu.
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