Disclosure of Service documents, injurious to national security – Buratai

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, has charged officers and men to ensure proper management and handling of Service documents saying, some of the documents are highly classified to the extent that disclosure could be injurious to national security.

Speaking at a 4-day Nigerian Army Officers’ Office Management and Document Security Workshop 2019 in Kaduna on Tuesday, the COAS further urged officers to monitor their clerks and be up-to-date in the preservation and sanctity of service documents.

Represented by the Chief of Administration, Army, Major General Kuta Isyaku, Buratai noted that the workshop is meant to acquaint Nigerian Army officers with recent trends on document security and refresh officers on effective office management techniques.

He urged the 160 participants drawn from army units and formations as well as sister services to pay attention as it will equip officers with requisite skills and knowledge required to prevent emerging threats to security of documents in the Nigerian Army.

He added, “The workshop targets the officers because they play an important role in ensuring proper management and handling of Service documents, as some of the documents are highly classified to the extent that that disclosure could be injurious to national security.

“The social media has brought additional challenges to information security which are being used by misguided personnel, contrary to our service rules, the Nigerian Army has extent policy on the use of social media which prohibits among others the use of social media to discourse or disclose service matters.

“It is indeed very unfortunate and unprofessional for service personnel to resort to the social media to disclose classified information or express grievances when the army has well established channels for addressing complaints.”

He assured that the Nigerian Army cyber warfare command has the capacity to monitor and deal effectively with cyber related issues including the management of social media.

The General Officer Commanding 1 Division, Nigerian Army, Major General Faruk Yahaya said security of information and document is one of the cardinal requirements for operations security, effective operations and effective administration in army.

“The army recognizes the dynamic nature of contemporary challenges which affects almost all spheres of human endeavour including cyber and information management and therefore seeks to develop local capacity through realistic workshop of this nature to enhance the management skills and effectiveness in document and information security of officers,” he said.