A former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor (retd.), has backed the military for shutting down Banex Plaza in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, over the recent attack on some soldiers by hoodlums.
The former military boss said the plaza should remain closed until those who attacked the soldiers are arrested and brought to justice.
The retired general explained that an attack on any uniformed man remains an attack on the state and as such, Nigerians must condemn the act.
Speaking on Arise TV on Tuesday night, the former military boss said the soldiers would have been lynched if not for the swift intervention of policemen.
He said, “As a Nigerian who has served in the armed forces, of course, retired now, and at the level I did, it would be inappropriate if I see what is going wrong and I could not talk about it. So, from that context, I would say the Bannex Plaza attack is a sad one. Sad one in the sense that when you see soldiers in uniform, whether armed or not, you raise your hands against that individual. Besides being a soldier, for any uniformed person, as long as he is an agent of the state, any attack on him is an attack on the state.
“As so, every Nigerian of goodwill must condemn such act. As for me, I join to support the closure of the plaza for as long as it takes to have everyone responsible for that dastardly act to be brought to justice. This is because if we fail to do so, then we’ll be calling for anarchy.
“The only men who are sacrificing their lives to ensure our collective goods are men of the armed forces, police, and other security agencies. And on a slight provocation, they are now attacked and if not for the policemen and other private individuals who rescued the soldiers, then we would have witnessed Okuoma II which of course, does not speak good of us.”
He however, added that Nigerians should be sensitised on the sacrifice being made by the armed forces and why there should be a mutual understanding between the military and the populace.
“In setting agenda for this discussion, it must be to the extent that the populace should be made to understand the place of national security and the responsibility of each and every one of us in preserving the sanctity that seeks to make us live in a very good environment,” Irabor said.
Recall it was reported that the Army shut down the plaza following an attack on some soldiers last weekend, which they claimed was carried out by a group of hoodlums.
The Army, in its defence, said it temporarily shut down activities in the plaza “to ensure that the hoodlums who have been using the Banex neighborhood as a sanctuary to pose a security threat to the Federal Capital Territory were apprehended.”
It added that it had also commenced an investigation to prevent “such unwarranted attacks on our personnel and other security operatives, as has been observed in other areas, such as the unfortunate attack in Okuama.”