Military no longer has officers with political ambition, DHQ replies Ekweremadu

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) yesterday said the military no longer has officers with political ambition that would want to disrupt Nigeria’s democracy.

The DHQ was reacting to a statement credited to the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, during Wednesday’s Senate plenary that the military could still stage coup in the face of receding democratic practice in the country.

It urged Nigerians to disregard the apprehension raised by the Deputy Senate President in its entirety, adding that the statement in the true sense has the capacity to denigrate the military in every ramification including its loyalty to the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and the confidence of the general public to defend Nigeria’s democracy.

Acting Director, Defence Information (DDI), Brig. Gen John Agim, in a statement in Abuja, yesterday said the present men and officers in the Nigerian military were thoroughbred professionals with no ambition in politics whatsoever.

Agim noted that Ekweremadu’s statement, even as it appeared “cautionary and sincere in the atmosphere of discourse,” was “however derogatory to the Army in the expression used and by extension to the Armed Forces of Nigeria.”

While reiterating that the military was in complete and total subordination to democratic governance, the DHQ said: “Shortly, after the transition from a military to a democratically elected government in 1999, officers of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, who were quasi-political, were honourably eased out of service.’’