Insecurity: Legionnaires express willingness to help secure Bauchi State
Story from Beatrice EARLAND, Bauchi
Members of the Nigerian Legion in Bauchi State have expressed their readiness to help the state government secure lives and property of all citizens.
Chairman of the state chapter of the Nigerian Legion, Brigadier-General Idris Danjuma Ningi (rtd), made the declaration on Friday at the launch of the 2022 Armed Forces Remembrance Day and Emblem appeal fund at the Government House, Bauchi.
He said the capacity of the country’s security architecture was overstretched in view of the rising insecurity across the country, submitting that there was, therefore, the need for retired servicemen to be engaged with a view to offering their contributions to ensure that the territorial integrity of Nigeria was protected.
He, however, commended both the Federal and the Bauchi State Governments for their efforts in keeping the state safe despite being the gateway to the North-East, which is the theatre of operations of insurgent group, Book Haram/ISWAP.
General Ningi, however, lamented the deteriorating condition of the ex-servicemen and their families in the state, submitting that their situation is nothing to write home about as inflation hits the people harder in the country.
The legionnaires’ Chairman further explained that majority of his members and their families lived under very harsh conditions, informing that while most of them could not have three square meals, they could not afford education expenses of their children and wards.
Ningi then pleaded with the state governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed to construct a befitting secretariat for them in Bauchi, the state capital, informing that the current building housing the Nigerian Legion in the state is unhabitable.
Governor Mohammed while responding, said that considering Nigeria’s historical antecedents, the ex-servicemen deserved more than they were actually getting at the moment from both government and private individuals.
The Governor declared that there was the urgent need for more support for the legionnaires in order to uplift and improve their living conditions.
According to Mohammed, there was no party lines when issue of providing succour to families of members of the Nigerian Legion was being considered, declaring that legionnaires did well to keep the territorial integrity of Nigeria intact.
He called on the private sector and kind-hearted individuals to do more to help improve the living conditions of the ex-service men, asserting that legionnaires belong to the entire Nigeria not a section of the country.
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