The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Col. Taoreed Lagbaja, has raised concern over the low representation of Rivers State, as well as the South-South and Southeast regions, in Army recruitment efforts.
The Acting Director of Supply and Transport Services at Army Headquarters, Department of Army Logistics (DOAL), Brig.-Gen. Wiito Nzidee, made the statement when urging stakeholders and leaders in Rivers to motivate their youth to pursue careers in the security forces.
Nzidee spoke on Tuesday when he led a sensitization team on the ongoing Nigerian Army 88 regular intake for trades/non-tradesmen and women, to Rivers State.
The team arrived in Rivers with the sole aim of sensitising the people on the need to motivate their youths to join the military.
Nzidee stated that Rivers was leading other states in the south-south with the lowest representation in recent recruitments into the Army, lamenting that Rivers was not utilising its quota in army recruitments
He insisted that the COAS was worried by the development, saying it was the reason he sent them to visit the state and sensitize the indigenes, and encourage the youths to take advantage of the ongoing recruitment to join the military.
He said: “The Chief of Army Staff, in his wisdom, has sent us to carry this message to the nooks and crannies of not just the Niger Delta but, of course, Rivers State that you are not utilizing your quota in the Nigerian Army.
“I am here again as a son of the soil that I am to emphasize on the need why our young sons and daughters need to join the army.
“The chief of army staff has carefully selected some Niger Delta officers and has asked us to use the newsmen in the Niger Delta to tell the youths of Niger Delta that they are not filling up their quota in the Nigerian army.
“This thing we are complaining about is more prominent in the Niger Delta and the Southeast and this has raised the question that why we need to always come here all the time.”