The 13 Brigade of Nigerian Army, Calabar, has reassured Nigerians of its capability and readiness to work with other security agencies in the state to provide safe environment for residents and businesses to thrive.
Commander of the brigade, Brigadier General OT Olatoye said the collective efforts of the army and other agencies could engender greater socio-political stability in the country and Cross River in particular.
He said the Brigade as well as the army as a whole will remain loyal to President Muhammadu Buhari and his government as a way of sustaining peace and greatness.
Olatoye spoke in Calabar when the Brigade, with supports from other battalion such as Amphibious Training School, Operation Delta Safe (ODS), as well as the 146 Battalion, came together to conduct environmental sanitation and evacuate wastes from the popular Watts Market as well as adjoining streets in Calabar.
He said the exercise was a corporate social responsibility, a way of giving back to the society whose tax sustains the army.
“The exercise was to mark 156 years of the Nigerian Army as well as to sensitise the public towards the upcoming Nigerian Army Day Celebration (NADCEL) in July 2019.
“We will work in concert with other sister security agencies to provide safe environment for residents of Cross River State and Nigerians as a whole. We do this to ensure that businesses in the market and in the state and beyond remain safe and thriving.
“We want the host communities, which have been cordial with us, to replicate this little effort we have done here today to consolidate on the status of Calabar as the cleanness state capital in Nigeria.”
Olatoye said they carry out the environmental sanitation to celebrate NADCEL, when the first shot was fired in Garkem, Bekwara LGA of Cross River State which ignited the Nigerian-Biafra Civil War.