Army React To Alleged Dominance By Northerners In SSC Recruitment List

The Nigerian Army on Wednesday, March 31 insisted that an equal number of candidates were selected across the states of the federation for the Short Service Commission 47 recruitment exercise.

The Army in a statement made available to newsmen today, faulted the claims in some quarters (Naija News not inclusive), that candidates from the Northern region were given consideration in the list of those successful for the SSC 47 Selection Board.

According to the Army, the lucky candidates were selected strictly with the Federal Character policy.

The statement which was titled ‘Disclaimer: Re- North Dominates Nigerian Army Recruitment,’ signed by the Director, Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Mohammed Yerima, said it is quite uncharitable and blatantly divisive for any media organisation to whip up sentiments from such a straight forward exercise.

The Army insisted that the selection process was conducted in the best interest of the Nation.

The statement reads: “The publication alleged that the list of successful candidates for Short Service Commission 47 Selection Board which was published on 26 Mar 21 was dominated by the North while the South East had the fewest candidates. It is pertinent to state that the Nigerian Army strictly complies with the Federal Character policy.

“Accordingly, an equal number of 8 candidates were selected from each state of the federation except in rare instances where a state did not have the required number of eligible candidates to fill its 8 vacancies. In such an instance, the vacancy will be filled by a contiguous state from the same Geopolitical Zone.

“Following this number allocated per state, the South East which is made up of 5 States was entitled to 40 candidates. However, 2 extra vacancies were allocated to the geopolitical zone thereby making a total of 42 candidates instead of 40. North Central for instance has 7 states (FCT inclusive). Taking 8 candidates from each state in geopolitical zone gives a total of 56 in addition to 2 extra vacancies as was also allocated to the South East gave the total of 58 candidates.

“It is therefore quite uncharitable and blatantly divisive for any media organisation to whip up sentiments from such a straight forward exercise conducted by the Nigerian Army in the best interest of the Nation. The General public including media practitioners are encouraged to always seek clarification from Army Headquarters whenever in doubt on any issue rather than rushing to publish reports that would be defamatory to the image of the Nigerian Army and injurious to Nigeria’s unity.”

Meanwhile, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, has listed some plans to rebuild the Nigerian Army in the face of the security challenges facing the country.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Nigerian Army Operations retreat in Abuja on Monday, Attahiru promised to rebuild the army by procuring fighting equipment and rebuilding the fighting skills and capacity of soldiers, Naija News reports.