From Molly Kilete, Abuja
The Chief of Army Staff(COAS), Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai has charged officers and soldiers of the Nigerian army to be more closer to God as they carry out their constitutional duties of protecting the territorial integrity of the Nigerian nation.
Buratai who urged the personnel to combine their professional knowledge and experiences in the army job, said it was more important for them to be closer to God without whom he said they can achieve nothing.
He said that but for the spiritual warfare seminar introduced by the Nigerian army to counter the ideologies of terrorists and other criminal groups, the army would have lost its hard earned reputation during the #EndSARS protest that ravaged virtually every part of the country.
The COAS said that the decision of the army to put God first in its day to day activities made those bent of giving the army a bad name to see corpses at the Lekki tollgate when there was none in the physical.
He said it was very clear that God’s intervention and support for the army was visible during the recent EndSARS protests where no major casualties were recorded at the Lekki Tollgate.
Buratai, made this known while decorating 39, newly promoted Major-General with their new ranks in Abuja over the weekend.
He said “I am glad that we held the spiritual warfare seminar. This spiritual warfare seminar is very important. It is very important that while you combine your professional knowledge and experience, it’s always good to also be very close to theAlmighty God. As we all know promotion comes from God alone and our victory as our motor says victory comes from God alone so it’s your promotion as well. I will use this opportunity to congratulate you.
“I enjoin officers and men to continue to be actively engaged in the military operations and also fast and pray to Almighty God to give us victory.
“I think this our spiritual warfare last year really worked very hard on our #EndSARS protesters because they were seeing double.there was no single corpse but they were seeing imaginary in lekki tollgate. So I urge you to continue in this manner.
Buratai, who maintained that the Nigerian army is a professional, said “Nigerian Army is a professional military force that respect and protect the citizens, We very much understand the importance of human right, we will continue to protect the life of every law-abiding Nigerian and we will do that in accordance with the rules of engagement and confines of the constitution.” we are working all round to ensure that we protect our country and our country men.