The Nigerian Army has denied reports being circulated in the Social Media that one of its personnel Lance Corporal Musa Adamu is in detention for converting from Islam to Christianity and preaching the gospel.
Army spokesperson Brigadier General Onyema Nwachuckwu in a statement Tuesday disclosed that the soldier is in custody for violation of some provisions of the Armed Forces Act.
According to him, the report is not only a misrepresentation of the true situation but an outrageous falsehood tainted with religious bigotry, being peddled against the Nigerian Army.
He said the Nigerian Army is a professional institution guided by well established ethics and tradition in all its activities and administration of personnel, sayings “This is aside the unbiased premium of place accorded the spiritual concern and growth of personnel as well as the sensitivity it attaches to religious practices amongst personnel. “
Nwachuckwu said, “Lance Corporal Musa Adamu, a personnel of the Amphibious Training School was attached to 63 Brigade to partcipate in an ongoing operation, during which he was found preaching in uniform on a social media platform in violation of extant Social Media policy for the Armed Forces of Nigeria.
“This prompted his invitation for interrogation by relevant authorities. Rather than present himself for the investigation, he absconded for about six and a half months, resulting in the declaration of the soldier on Absence Without Official Leave (AWOL).
” The action of the personnel violates Section 58 (a) (b) Obstruction of Provost Officers and Section 59 (a) (b) Absence Without Leave.
“It must be clarified, that once a personnel is absent from his unit for 7 days without any justification, he will be declared on AWOL. This automatically triggers the freezing of his salary account, until the personnel returns to unit and is arraigned and sanctioned. “
