Embrace sports, COAS urges troops

• Ali honoured with novelty volleyball match
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-Gen Faruk Yahaya, has urged members of the armed forces to embrace sports, saying that such enterprise will make them more effective in discharge of their duties.

Speaking while commissioning a state of the art gymnasium and swimming pool at the Headquarters of Third Division of the Nigerian Army in Jos, Yahaya said the armed forces was focused on providing quality sporting facilities for its personnel, while urging them to make good use of the facilities.

According to the Acting Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Third Division, Jos, Lt. Col. Ishaku Takwa, who issued the statement, the COAS, represented by the Chief of Standard and Evaluation Army, Major General S. Muhammed, charged the personnel to make sporting activities a hobby to improve their competitiveness in sporting competitions.

He premised his decision to support the improvement of sporting activities in all Nigerian Army Barracks on the resolve to make sporting activities a tremendous source of joy and energy to troops and members of their families.

Meanwhile, the outgoing General Officer Commanding (GOC) Third Division of the Nigerian Army and Commander, Operation Safe Haven (OPSH), Major General Ibrahim Ali, was on Tuesday honoured with a novelty volleyball match as part of activities marking his tour of duty of OPSH.

Speaking after the novelty match that saw officers of OPSH defeating the soldiers, the Chief of Staff of OPSH, Brigadier General Amos Egbejule and Deputy Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police Iyau, extolled the leadership qualities of the commander and his infrastructure revolution in OPSH.

The senior officers described the outgoing GOC and OPSH Commander as an upright and reliable leader whose legacies cannot be forgotten, recalling the numerous interventions in providing basic amenities to communities in dire need of assistance towards the improvement of their standards of living.

Responding, General Ali said he had gathered a worthwhile experience during his tour of duty of OPSH, lauding the personnel for their dedication to serve, charging them to remain disciplined while discharging their duties to the country.