EMMANUEL NLEWEDUM, Port Harcourt
The 6 Division, Nigerian Army, on Saturday, organised an environmental sanitation exercise in two Rivers communities to commemorate the Nigerian Army’s 162nd anniversary celebration.
The sanitation exercise was held along Igwuruta-Etche road in Etche LGA and Elele community in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Speaking during the exercise, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 6 Division, Major General Emmanuel Eric Emekah, said the essence of the sanitation was to create more awareness and improve the army’s civil-military relations efforts
Represented by Brigadier General Emmanuel Adamu, Chief of Staff, 6 Division, Emekah noted that the sanitation exercise was part of activities lined up to commemorate the Nigerian Army and their sacrifices to the nation.
He said, “Well, the Nigerian Army Day celebration is an annual event that is celebrated on the 6th of July every year to commemorate the Nigerian Army and their sacrifices to the nation.
“A series of activities have been lined up to commemorate the day and one of which is the Sanitation exercise being organised here today to create more awareness and to improve our civil-military relations efforts.
“Etche is one of the Local Governments in Rivers State, where we chose just to bring more awareness of the Nigerian Army’s celebration to the people and to ensure a healthy and clean environment.
In Eleme Community, the Commanding Officer, 5 Battalion and Cantonment, Elele, Lt. Col. Isaac Gbenga Fashona, said the Army decided to carry out environmental sanitation in the community to appreciate the people for their hospitality.
He said, “Today, we are doing environmental sanitation in our host community. We are giving back to them to reassure them that we are part of them, and that is why we came out en masse to render sanitation.
“This is our own little way to say thank you to our host community for making the place habitable and peaceful for us to stay.”
Lt. Col. Fashona, added that the anniversary will be concluded by President Bola Tinubu and the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Olufemi Oluyede in Kaduna.
“Our activity today is in line with our celebration, by next week Sunday, the Nigerian Army would be 162 years old.
“We conduct the celebration yearly and this year’s edition commenced yesterday with Jumat prayer and tomorrow we will be having interdenominational service, afterwards we will proceed to medical outreach and the grand finale would be in Kaduna on Sunday next week where other formations and units will come together with Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces and the Chief of Army Staff to celebrate.”
On his part, the Commanding Officer, 343 Artillery Regiment, Elele, Lt. Col. Isah Ahmed Almakura, said the army ensuring a clean environment was a way to appreciate the host community for their cooperation in providing human intelligence available to the army.
“The community has been doing well, they have been giving us human intelligence and we have been cohabitating with them peacefully, so we said it is necessary for us to come out in line with the Nigerian army day celebration to give back to them by keeping their environment clean.”
He urged the community to continue providing actionable information to the army, to enable the army to better protect the territorial integrity of the country.
“My message to the community is for them to keep up with the good work they’ve been doing. They should not relent in intelligence gathering , whenever they sight any criminal around, they always alert us so that we can take necessary action, because security is for everybody, not only the army.
“For us to effectively secure them, they need to play their part by providing us with information on time and that is what they have been doing since.”
In her appreciation to the Army, a trader in Elele community, Nkiruka, said the sanitation exercise by the soldiers was mind-blowing and the first of its kind in the area.
She said following the sanitation exercise, the environment had become sparkling clean and healthy.
“Seeing the army this morning made me very happy, in fact, I have never seen this kind of thing, for soldiers to be cleaning the environment and making everything neat.
“You can see that Elele is very neat and I have never seen any force like this come to Elele to do this kind of work, in fact, the army has tried a lot. God should bless them for making Elele neat and shining.”
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