The Nigerian Army has described as a misrepresentation of facts a story by an online newspaper that the North dominated a recently released list of Short Service officers into the Army.
The Army stated this in a press Statement by its Spokesman, Brigadier General Mohammed Yerima.
The recruitment according to the Army spokesman was done equitably with each state getting 8 slots each in line with the Federal character principle as enshrined in its laws and procedures.
“Accordingly, an equal number of 8 candidates were selected from each state of the federation except in rare instances where a state did not have the required number of eligible candidates to fill its 8 vacancies”.
“In such instance, the vacancy will be filled by a contiguous state from the same Geopolitical Zone”.
“Following this number allocated per state, the South East which is made up of 5 States was entitled to 40 candidates”.
“However, 2 extra vacancies were allocated to the geopolitical zone thereby making a total 42 candidates instead of 40. North Central for instance has 7 states (FCT inclusive). Taking 8 candidates from each state in geopolitical zone gives a total of 56 in addition to 2 extra vacancies as was also allocated to the South East gave the total of 58 candidates.
He said the report is stretching imagination from what is a staright forward exercise conducted by the Nigerian Army in national interest.
He urged members of the public including media practitioners to always seek clarification from Army Headquarters whenever in doubt on any issue rather than rushing to publish reports that would be defamatory to the image of the Nigerian Army and injurious to Nigeria’s unity.
