File photo: Nigerian soldiers
The 20 Model Battalion of the Nigeria Army located in Serti,
Taraba, said it had discovered an illegal security training camp in
Serti locality, NAN reports.
Commanding Officer of the battalion, Lt.-Col. Sani Adamu, who stated this on Thursday in Serti.
Sani told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the Special Adviser on
Security to Taraba Governor, Col. Agyo Wapan (retd), had been invited as
part of an investigation on the issue.
He said that the discovery followed calls by concerned citizens,
who disclosed that no fewer than 300 youths were being trained in a
public primary school in the area.
He said that on the receipt of the calls, he promptly responded by
visiting the site and found over 300 young men were undergoing military
training.
The commander said that the training was being conducted by GS Security Services, a security outfit in the state.
He confirmed that he had filed a report to his superior on the development and for the further directive.
The security outfit is allegedly hired by the Taraba Government to train selected youths as Marshals.
Sani explained that his men had profiled the young men and dismantled the camp while awaiting directive from Army Headquarters.
Alarm on the illegal training camp was a sequel to an unusual
influx of hundreds of young men from some local government areas into
Serti, headquarters of Gashaka Local Government Area.
A resident of the area, Abubakar Mohammed, told NAN that they
raised the alarm because of the frequent clashes of youths who were
commonly used by desperate politicians to hunt their enemies.
“We suspect that the state government is training them, under
whatever guise, to use them to disrupt the election process in 2019,” he
said.
Contacted, Chairman of Gashaka Local Government Area, Alhaji Umar
Mohammed, explained that the training was at the instance of the state
government.
He said that 10 youths were selected from each ward to be trained
as marshals who would subsequently be deployed to provide security in
their areas.
Mohammed said that before the exercise, the military, police and
the Directorate of State Service (DSS) were invited to a security
meeting where the issues of uniform and other kitting of the marshals
were agreed on.
He said that those being trained in Serti were recruited from Sardauna and Gashaka areas “with the full knowledge of stakeholders in each ward.’’