The planned disengagement of over 200 soldiers is a routine exercise, Nigerian Army said on Saturday.
The army authorities are reacting to a story indicating that at least 243 soldiers in the Northeast and other theatres of operation had applied for voluntary retirement.
A statement by the army spokesperson Brig-General Onyema Nwachukwu, said the soldiers are not leaving the army because of corruption or low morale as portrayed in a recent media report.
He said the “allegation that soldiers of the Nigerian Army (NA) are proceeding on voluntary retirement due to alleged corruption, poor service conditions and low morale” is false.
He said the report is “nothing but a concoction of the imagination of the unrepentant enemies of the nation and mischief makers and should be outrightly discountenanced by the public.”
The statement said, “The subjective and unethical report is a distraction and another failed attempt at dampening the morale and fighting will of the loyal, dedicated and patriotic fighting force of the NA.”
General Nwachukwu said recruitment into the Nigerian Army is voluntary, therefore officers and men can exit when they feel so according to the extant rules and regulations.
He said, “Perhaps these impenitent mischief makers need to be schooled to understand that the NA is not a conscript Army and that recruitment into the NA is voluntary with extant policy on discharge and retirement of soldiers and officers respectively, like other organizations.
“This provides its personnel the opportunity to apply for voluntary discharge, when they deem fit and meet the terms and conditions as
stipulated in the Harmonized Terms and Conditions of Service soldiers/ratings/airmen (Revised) 2017.
“It is thus, the inalienable right of a personnel to voluntarily or on medical grounds apply for discharge, if they meet the terms. It is therefore not an aberration that the COAS granted approval for 91 NA/32/4792 WO NDAGANA ISHIAKU and 242 others to voluntarily discharge from the NA, as being unprofessionally manipulated by some media.”
He said the Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya has stepped up efforts in improving the welfare of the soldiers as well as providing hardware for successful execution of the counter-insurgency operations across the country.
