By Carol Utulu
The Nigeria Army has deployed a team of personnel to Delta to sensitise the people ahead of its 86 Regular Recruitment.
The Commander, 63 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Asaba, Brig.- Gen. Sanusi Aliyu disclosed this while addressing newsmen on Friday in Asaba.
He said that the army team was in Delta to talk to the people of the state on the need to join the army.
Aliyu said that the army high command had observed that some states, especially Delta are lagging behind in filling their slots in recruitment into the Nigerian Army.
“The Nigerian Army has observed that some states for one reason or the other have not been filling the quota allocated to them.
“As a result the army deems it fit to send out a team to go to these states to sensitise their governments and people that the Nigerian Army is for every Nigerian,” he said.
In a remark, the leader of the team, Brig.-Gen. Timi Mackintosh said the exercise became necessary due to the shortfall in recruitment into the Nigeria Army from Delta and Rivers.
“The Chief of Army Staff has noticed that in the last two sets of recruitment (84 and 85), Delta could not meet up 60 percent of its quota and this is worrisome to the army high command,” he said.
According to him, interested and eligible Nigerians within the ages of 18 and 26 can apply online at www.recruitment.army.mil.ng
The team leader said that the application period, which was initially meant to close on Oct. 20, has been extended by one week to enable more Nigerians to apply.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the team also visited the Secretary to the Delta Government (SSG), Dr Kingsley Emu and appealed for the cooperation of the state government.
In his response, Emu assured them that the state would reach out to its youths to avail themselves of the opportunity to join the army.
“There is no doubt that the youths are very critical to this project and here in Delta, we will reach out to them on this carrier opportunity.
“It is really sad as you have observed that we have not been able to meet up our recruitment quota in the past exercises.
“However, we need a lot of our able bodied young men in the military to go serve our nation and protect its sovereignty.
“As a state government, we will send out urgent circular to the Local Government Areas through the ALGON so that our people can avail themselves of this opportunity.
“We have enough manpower in Delta to fill our quota. All we need to do now is to take this message to our people and encourage them to apply,” he said.(NAN)
