The Minister of Defence, Brig.-Gen. Mansur Dan-Ali, says the recent retirement of 38 Army officers is part of an ongoing reform in the Armed Forces of Nigeria, rather than a witch-hunt as alleged in some quarters.
The minister said this when fielding questions from newsmen after delivering a lecture titled “Defence Management: the Nigerian Experience” at the National Defence College, Abuja, on Monday.
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 explained that 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.
“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.
“Of course, they were given fair hearing; they were called by a board and they went and testified.
“Don’t forget that in the military, there is no half way to doing things; the moment you are found wanting, you have to succumb and you will go,” he said.
