New Service Chiefs Vow to Respect Human Rights, End Insecurity

The newly appointed service chiefs have promised to respect human rights while discharging their constitutional mandates.

This is as they promised to rid the country of the prevailing insecurity.

Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General Christopher Musa, stated this on behalf of other service chiefs when they visited the Ministry of Defence in Abuja on Monday.

Musa said the armed forces under his watch would go about their duties professionally with respect for human rights.

He urged the citizens to see the nation’s armed forces as their own.

Musa said, “To the civilians, the Armed Forces are for you and we will do whatever it takes to ensure Nigeria thrives.

“We are committed to what we have been tasked to do. While doing this, we are going to respect human rights. We can assure you that we are going to be very professional in our approach.

“We assure you all that we are here and we are committed to ensuring that we achieve the mandate of the president.”

Musa also promised that he and the other service chiefs would bring about peace that children would be proud of.

He said, “We want Nigeria to be peaceful. We grew up when Nigeria was peaceful and we know what it looks like and we want to ensure that our children will be proud of the country during our time.”

Speaking, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, Ibrahim Kana, said that as part of the efforts to reform the military, the immediate past government approved the establishment of Octagon.

Kana said that the Defence Ministry had developed activities to key into the affairs of the new government, specifically the reform of the armed forces, which the past government approved and the armed forces had commenced implementation.

“One of them is the establishment of Octagon; you know, in America, we have the Pentagon. In Nigeria, our leaders that came together chose Octagon, a situation where civilians and military work hand in hand to see to the provision of security to the nation”, he said.

He also said the military would support the Federal Government to ensure the growth of the economy.

Kana said, “We are committed to the deep blue services of Nigeria. Nigeria is surrounded by water. Some countries heavily depend on the blue economy, which we have not tapped. Hence, we are committed to supporting the government.”