Soldiers ‘ll not be used to rig April elections – Army chief

By Tony Edike

ENUGU – CHIEF of the  Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, declared, yesterday, that Nigeria’s democracy had come to stay, saying the military was duty bound to protect and defend the country’s unity.

He also urged politicians currently jostling for positions in the April elections to bury any thought about using soldiers to rig the April general elections as that would not be possible.  He said his men would rather help the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct credible election for Nigerians.

Lt. Gen. Ihejirika, who made this known while declaring open the second Commanding Officers’ Workshop hosted by the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army in Enugu , said the military remained the symbol of the nation’s unity, stating that any officer that compromised the irreducible standard would be severely dealt with.

He said: “Let me inform my officers here, at least from GOCs; if your close staff, including drivers, clerk, secretary, cook, among others, are people from the same tribe, it means you don’t represent the unity and oneness of this country; you are still drawn along tribal lines and we are not going to tolerate that.”

Speaking on the theme of the workshop, “repositioning commanding officers to meet contemporary challenges”, the COAS said this had come at the right time, stressing that he remained committed to building a strong military base for the country, in order to meet the expectations of Nigerians, government and the international community.
On the forthcoming elections, he stated that his men would not be seen at the polling booths but would provide adequate security from the outside to ward off any possible hijack of ballot boxes by hoodlums as had been the case in past elections.

He said: “I’ve already said that soldiers would not interfere with the electoral process, they will not be at the polling booths, so to conceive an idea of soldiers being involved in rigging is something I cannot just imagine.

So, to ensure good conduct of the soldiers, this workshop has been organised. This is not the only avenue for us to deliberate on what professional should be, we’ve had other”

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/03/soldiers-ll-not-be-used-to-rig-april-elections-army-chief/

erhm, who does the the Chief of Army staff report to again?