(Special for CAFS) Nigerian army going through reform: defense minister

The recent retirement of 38 Army officers is part of an ongoing reform in the Armed Forces of Nigeria, Minister of Defense, Brig.-Gen. Mansur Dan-Ali said Monday.

Dan-Ali made the clarification at the National Defense College in the country's capital of Abuja, saying it was not a witch-hunt.

He urged the public not to be misled by the false information about the retirement of the officers, adding that no innocent officer was retired unjustly.

Dan-Ali said what culminated into retirement of the affected officers was a process of painstaking review and assessment of officers' conduct in various tasks assigned to them at a particular time.

The minister said the affected officers were indicted for offences ranging from professional misconduct to financial corruption.

"What we did was to make sure that all those that were indicted in one way or the other for both professional corruption and monetary corruption, had the opportunity to defend themselves," he added.

"What I mean by professional corruption is soldiers' involvement in partisan politics; if you are partisan, then you are professionally corrupt; you will be asked to go; that was what happened," he said.

According to him, plans were under way to adopt and implement a reform policy that would reduce the country's dependence on the military for duties that could be performed by the civil police.

He said the Ministries of Defense and Interior were collaborating, to ensure that police and other paramilitary organizations were empowered to contain many of Nigeria's security challenges and depend less on the military.

The minister told his audience that the planned Defense reform would entrench professionalism and discipline in the armed forces. Endit