Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Adedayo Adeoye (retd.), has said former dismissed soldiers who have expressed readiness to fight invading Russian soldiers in Ukraine should be deployed in Borno, Yobe and other states in North-East Nigeria to combat terrorists.
Adeoye stated this in an exclusive interview with newsmen on Friday.
He said the Nigerian government should be proactive to motivate and re-absorb the dismissed military men to boost the insurgency war against Boko Haram and other terror groups in the North-East.
Adeoye said the planned mission of the Nigerian fighters to Ukraine was suicidal as they neither understood the Kyiv terrain nor the art of warfare in Europe.
Recall that scores of Nigerian ex-military personnel converged on the premises of the Embassy of Ukraine in Abuja on Thursday to express their readiness to join the Ukrainian side against the invading Russian forces.
The Ukrainian Embassy had told the Nigerian fighters who were willing to travel to Ukraine to fight Russian forces to provide $1,000 for ticket and visa, promising that they would be paid the same amount that Ukrainian soldiers are paid.
The announcement came as the Russia-Ukraine conflict split into its second week amid shrinking military forces and casualty toll in Ukraine even as attempts to reach a truce and cease the destruction of the war-wracked European nation have been unsuccessful between adamant Vladimir Putin and defiant Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Hundreds of soldiers have been reported to have paid the supreme price from both warring sides since the war started while over one million persons have been displaced in Ukraine.
Speaking with newsmen on Friday, Adeoye said the ex-servicemen planning to fight Russian forces were on a suicide mission.
“What they are trying to do is suicidal. It is like the case of an ant trying to fight an elephant; what do they know about the terrain? They are only interested in the money. I won’t advise anybody to do that.
He added, “The Federal Government should motivate these dismissed soldiers and policemen. If they are still interested in the business of securing lives and property, let them go to the North-West and the North-East to fight terrorists and bandits. These are places they even know the terrain well enough.
“The government should encourage them to fight Nigeria’s insurgency war rather than travelling to Ukraine to face Russian soldiers.
“Generally, the government should call all the retired and dismissed soldiers who still want to come back to the Army to fight the insurgency war in the North-East and the North-West. Government should motivate them; give them good salaries, put them under insurance cover so that if anything happens to them, their families have things to fall back on.”
He further added, “The government should encourage them to fight Nigeria’s insurgency war rather than travelling to Ukraine to face Russian soldiers.”
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