January 10, 2024 NewsOrient
News Update

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Taoreed Lagbaja, said a soldier who criticised Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State in a viral video has been arrested.

“The soldier that was apprehended while plying on a one-way does not represent the Nigerian Army. In every respect, it contravenes what we stand for which is discipline as an army, and it contravenes the constitution and the laws of Lagos and so we frown at that as the army,” the Army Chief said on Tuesday during the opening of the Dragon Officers Mess in Abakpa Cantonment, Enugu State.

General Lagbaja said: “But for what you alleged that soldiers have gone to social media casting aspersion on the person and the office of the Governor of Lagos State, I will say it is only one soldier that has done that.

“The army has investigated and that soldier has been apprehended, and we are investigating. For every other comical act that you have seen on social media, they are not personnel of the Nigerian Army. We have investigated that.

“From the mode of dressing of some of them, you will know that they are not personnel of the Nigerian Army. One of them was wearing the cap badge upside down, and you will know that that is not a personnel of the Nigerian Army. An officer can never do that.

“From the utterances that these people made, you will know the angle from which they were talking from. They were talking politics, not the army.

“For the ones that pertain to the army, we are investigating, and it will be treated accordingly.”

It would be recalled that after Governor Sanwo-Olu on January 2, 2024 ordered the arrest of a soldier and some commercial motorcyclists (Okada riders) for “driving against the traffic on the Lagos-Badagry expressway,” many videos trended on social media showing men dressed in Army uniforms criticising Gov Sanwo-Olu in strong terms for daring to humiliate a soldier.

Photo Credit: Nigerian Army

~ NewsOrient