Soldiers should arrest civilians wearing military uniform, not assault them – Nigerian Army official

The Chief of Civil-Military Affairs (Army), Major Gen. Gold Chibuisi, has told Nigerian soldiers what to do to civilians dressed in military uniform.

Speaking during a chat with journalists on Saturday night in Abuja, Chibuisi also said that it is against Nigerian law for non-military personnel to wear military uniforms.

According to him, soldiers must act professionally and lawfully when handling such cases.

He, however, revealed that many soldiers had been sanctioned for assaulting Nigerians who wore military camouflage.

Chibuisi said: “I’m surprised that in most briefs we give in our programmes, we always talk about this uniform issue because it keeps recurring.

“It’s against the law of the land. If you are not in the Armed Forces, please don’t use our uniform, whether you love it or not.

“But that is one part of it. Let people stop it. The other part is what we do, what our troops do when they see somebody dressed in a military uniform.

“You are supposed to just get the person to remove it, arrest the person and hand him over to the police, basically for prosecution.

“All these other things that come with it are not right. And we are doing sensitisation on them.

”;Those that we find and there is evidence that they did that, we always sanction them sternly. And we will continue to do that.”