We are under pressure to compromise elections – CDS

The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor, has said security agencies are always under pressure to compromise elections in the country.

He spoke on Thursday while featuring at the 61st session of the Ministerial Media Briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Irabor, however, called on Nigerians to have confidence in the Nigerian military officers and men who would remain totally committed to being neutral and apolitical.

Responding to a question, the CDS said, “Of course, there will always be pressure from all quarters, wanting to induce security forces, not just the military, the security force, the police. And that’s what criminal enterprise is all about. That is what something that is wrong is all about.

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“But what makes the difference is the professional approach to dealing with those issues. And that is what the military is committed to doing.”

“Now, the reason why we have ramped up our training in that regard, is sensitization; a lot of engagement across, you know, the formations and units is being undertaken.”

The CD also spoke of the major achievements of the military in the effort to keep the country safe, including more recruitment into all branches of the security services, the routing of insurgency and banditry, as well as the action to curtail oil theft.

He also said over 300,000 people had been freed from the hands of abductors since 2014 while refugees who fled the North East zone due to insurgency had started to return to their homes.

 Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) has warned politicians to stop mounting pressure on the military to rig elections in their favour.

The spokesperson of the council, Kola Ologbondiyan, urged the military hierarchy to ensure that its officers operated within the confines of the law.

 “The politicians who are putting pressure on the military should go and engage the people who will vote, they should go and sell their promises if they will be bought by them, they should stop mounting pressure on the military, they should face the electorate,” Ologbondiyan said.

By Muideen Olaniyi & Baba Martins