The Nigerian Army has warned
Ekiti state governor, Ayodele Fayose, to desist from disgracing the institution by claiming without proof that it is corrupt.
The army issued the governor a very public warning on social media through its official Twitter account (@HQNigerianArmy), tweeting, “Gov
Ayodele Fayose should stop politicizing the military&military OPs,
seek other avenues for your relevance. The Army today is not corrupt.”
The
tweet is believed to be a reaction to the governor’s recent criticism
of the military in relation to its fight against terrorist group, Boko Haram.
Following a report by the United States’ Department of State’s Bureau for Counter-terrorism and Countering Violent Extremism which stated that the country’s war
against Boko Haram is being hindered by animosity, Governor Fayose
issued a statement through his spokesman, Lere Olayinka, on Wednesday, August 2, 2017.
In the statement, the governor said;
“This report by the US government has further lent credence to earlier
revelation by the Transparency International (TI) that despite President Muhammadu Buhari government’s anti-corruption fight, corruption in the military is weakening Nigeria’s efforts to battle to battle Boko Haram.
As
revealed by the TI, fight against Boko Haram has become a cash cow for
some top military officers and corrupt politicians in the Buhari’s
government, with the creation of fake defence contracts and laundering
the proceeds often laundered abroad in the UK, U.S. and elsewhere.
The
TI went further to state that the military is left without vital
equipment, insufficiently trained, low in morale and under-resourced. The
Federal Government must therefore address the widespread corruption in
the fight against Boko Haram as revealed by the TI and also see to the
welfare of the military personnel involved in the fight.”
The governor has been a staunch critic of President Muhammadu Buhari‘s administration ever since he assumed office, and the governor has also received a lot of backlash for his outspoken nature.