By Tina George, Minna
As part of its responsibility towards making the nation a safe, clean place, men and officers of the 31 Artillery Brigade trooped out on Saturday to keep Minna clean.
The sanitation exercise, which involved cleaning up the areas around Mobil roundabout began at about 7.30 am and ended up at about 11 am.
The men and officers of the 31 Artillery Brigade Minna and Youth Corpers serving in the Nigerian Army swept the garage and roads, cleaned up the gutters by removing all the dirt and disposed of all dirt.
Speaking to newsmen at the end of the exercise, the Brigade Commander, Brigadier General Gideon Temitope said that sanitation is everyone’s business stating that everyone needs to be involved in it even the military.
He added that the sanitation exercise was part of the activities in the Exercise Ayem Akpatuma II which would also strengthen the civil and military relationship in the communities and state.
“We are here to ensure that we have a healthy and hygienic environment which is also part of security. In ensuring security, there must be various lines of actions involved and having a clean and hygienic environment is part of it.”
The representative of the Emir of Minna, Alhaji Farouk Bahago said that the gesture of the Army is appreciated by the Minna Emirate.
He said that the gesture will go a long way in strengthening and encouraging Army/Civilian relationship in the state.
The representative of the Chachanga local government acting Chairman, Baba Sule Aliyu expressed surprise over the gesture of the military saying it is highly appreciated.
“We are surprised to see the military cleaning up the streets and gutters in Minna. Seriously, everyone is surprised but the gesture is appreciated.”
He said that the state government is looking at ways of bringing back the monthly sanitation exercise to the state to ensure a clean and hygienic environment.
