- By Halimah Olamide
Any attack on him is an attack on the state. And so any Nigerian of goodwill must condemn such act
The Ex-Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, has described the recent attack on Army personnel as an attack on the state.
Recall that some army personnel were mobbed at the popular Banex Plaza Abuja last week prompting a closure of the business premises.
Irabor stated this during an interview session on Arise TV disclosing his support for the closure of the Plaza until the perpetrators are brought to book.
According to him, such acts of hitting soldiers whether armed or not must be condemned.
“I will say that the Banex plaza incident is a very sad one, a very sad one in the sense that seeing a soldier in uniform whether armed or not, you raised your hand against that individual, besides being a soldier even any uniform person for as long as is an agent of the state.
“Any attack on him is an attack on the state. And so any Nigerian of goodwill must condemn such act.
“And so for me I joined to support the closure of Banex plaza for as long as it takes to have everyone that is responsible for that dastardly act to be brought to justice.” He said.
He further stated that failure to prosecute the perpetrators is only a call for anarchy.
“This is because we fail to do so then of course it will call for Anarchy. The only men who have sacrificed or who are sacrificing their lives to ensure our collective good are members of the armed forces have called the police and other security agencies.
“So if on a slight provocation they are now attacked to the extent if not for the police men and some other individuals who rescued those, we would have been looking at Okuama 2, which have caused us speak good to worse.”
Expressing his pleasure, he commended the media for the its efforts in pushing the agenda for discussion.
“So i think that and that’s where I also want to appreciate what the media is doing that I think that you need to put in context in setting agenda for this discussion, it must be to the extent that the populace need to be reconscientized to understand the place of national security and the responsibility of each of every force in preserving the sanctity of our various establishment that seek to make us live a very good environment.
“You just get some kind of pushback or reluctance from the Army or from the Armed forces. How do you in that narrative of saying “Look this is our institution, this is our country, this is our pride, whoever you are you don’t touch one of those that have because there are rules.” He said.