By KEMI KASUMU
Competent sources within the Nigerian military have said the report in a section of the media that a total of “127 soldiers are exiting the Nigerian Army despite the worsening security challenges the military is currently combating in some parts of the country” is fake as, according to them, it has nothing in connection with truth and reality.
The report, said to have precisely been published in Premium Times, informed that the exiting soldiers, drawn from various formations of the army across the country, are all of the junior cadres who are mostly at the forefront in the field.
The military personnel, comprising one Master Warrant Officer, three Warrant Officers, 22 Staff Sergeants, 29 Sergeants, 64 Corporals, seven Lance Corporals and one Private, will disengage in May, according to a memo claimed to have seen by Premium Times.
It added that the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, a lieutenant general, had since approved their formal disengagement.
But our military sources punctured the report as fake pointing out where it especially where the online newspaper said the list of the exiting soldiers did not distinguish between those embarking on voluntary retirement and those leaving the army on medical grounds.
Our source simply said that, “retirement is a planned, routine and normal exercise in the military. Every officer or soldier knows his service records including when he joined the service and when he or she will retire (all things being equal). Some retire on ground of ill health, overstay on rank, over age or lack of interest among other reasons.” So to mischiviously insinuate or make negative journalistic imputation on military matters is a disservice to the nation, which should be avoided,” he said.
