The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Taofeek Lagbaja, has maintained that Army enlistment procedures are focused on competence of candidates.
Lagbaja stated this in Asaba while denouncing the notion that candidates need to have godfathers or connections to join the armed forces.
Brigadier General Witto Nzidee, representing the Chief of Army Staff, called on youths within the recruitment age of 18 and 22 years in Delta State, to take interest in ongoing Army recruitment exercise to fill up the allotted quota for the state.
“The registration is online now, the portal is open. They should go, click and register, and I can assure that anyone that is fit to be in the army will be recruited.
“The notion that you need to know somebody before you come into the army is a wrong notion. I am a Brigadier General today in the Nigerian Army, I did not know anybody, ” he said.
Nzidee noted that some states in the Southeast and South-South region of the country did not meet up with their quotas in recent Army recruitment exercises, thus the campaign to encourage young people in the state to enlist in the 88th regular recruitment process of the Nigerian Army.
He said it has become imperative to create the awareness for the state government and to the entire Deltans that if they are not utilising their quota in the army, other states would utilise their quota.
“You can’t blame some of these young people, because they are not aware of it. That’s why we have come to create this awareness, imploring the best to join us as partners in progress and development of Delta State, and of course, the entire Nigeria,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Commander 63 Brigade Asaba, Brig General Unachukwu Ugochukwu, has urged qualified youths in the state to take advantage of the opportunity to be gainfully employed, while he also reiterated that Delta State did not meet up with its quota in the last recruitment exercise.