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| Nigerian Army |
General Officer Commanding (GOC) 2 Division Ibadan, Major General Okwudili Azinta, on Monday dismissed claims by residents of six communities in Arulogun-Igbo Oloyin that the shooting range of the Division was a threat to their existence as selfish.
The Army boss said bullets from the shooting range of the division do not go beyond the cantonment, declaring the claims as ill-motivated.
He added the Army will not engage in any act that is capable of endangering the lives of any Nigerian nor bring the institution into disrepute.
The GOC spoke at the headquarters of the division in Ibadan after journalists were conducted round the shooting range and witnessed the firing of the projectiles by officers of Command.
Residents of Ajobo, Omilabu, Idi-Omo, Anilelerin, Keda and Oluseyi in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State had recently staged a protest walk, saying bullets from the Army shooting range have damaged many houses, vehicles as well as injured many people in the communities.
Many of the residents claimed bullets from the shooting range had often escape the stop-buff at the army shooting range into the communities, hurting people and property.
Azinta, who was supported by the Garrison Commander of the Division, Brig Gen Oluyinka Soyele and Deputy Director, Army Public Relations of the Division, Col Hassan Mohammed, stated that the Nigerian Army was conscious of the fact that soldiers are being paid from taxes being paid by the people, and the military would not use the weapon given to them by the people against them.
According to him, the distance of 2,000 metres exist between the stop-butt of the range and the nearest community, adding the effective range of the main weapon โ AK47 rifle being fired at the range is 800 metres.
Azinta, who said sensitisation exercise always precedes any shooting exercise, said it was virtually impossible for the projectiles from the range to travel up to a distance of 2,000 metres and wreak havoc as being claimed.
He added stop-butt at the range was designed to absorb and prevent any projectile from travelling out of the range area during live firing.
The bullets being fired at the range, according to Azinta, are flat trajectories always aimed at specific targets placed at the base of the stop-butt.
The GOC, who stated that hundreds of millions were used to construct the shooting range, said leaders of the affected communities had been invited to the barracks and were taken to the range to witness the exercise in order to show to them that it was impossible for projectiles to escape from the stop-butt, and if it escapes, it would not go beyond the perimeter fence of the division.
He said the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, had spent a lot of money on the shooting range at the division, which, he stated, ungraded the range to international standards.
โBy September this year, the entire Nigerian Army will be here (2 Division) for inter-division shooting competition, which we are supposed to host. If our host community is saying the use of the range is disturbing them, it will not be in the best interest of the people of Oyo State. It will not be in the best interest of Nigeria and Nigerians.
โYou have seen the divisionโs training school, where all our soldiers going for operation outside the division, particularly those being deployed in the North East, pass through refresher courses, which ends up in range practices before they are deployed.
โSo much has been done. No Army can be professional if it does not train. It is training that makes the difference between Armies. The most important aspect of soldiering is weapon handling, vis-a-vis physical fitness, and understanding of basic terms.
โSo, this range is there to ensure our proficiency in weapon handling. When you donโt train well in your weapons, the challenge is that there will be so much collateral damage.
โThat is when you will begin to hear that a stray bullet aimed at somebody killed somebody. So, without proficiency in weapon handling, you are going to have far more collateral damages than you ought not to have in operations.
โThis is why Nigerian Army is doing everything to make sure that our weapon handling is perfect, and is of highest standard before we deployed troops. That is what that range is there to serve.
โWe know that the community does not have any problem with us. We donโt have problem with them. It is just few misguided individuals, who are behind what is happening.
โOn our own, we have reached out to the community. We brought their elders, taking them to the same range. We have reached out equally to the traditional institutions in the state. We have equally reached out to the government.
โOur firing, in no way, puts the life of any Nigerian in danger. The range has been built to international standards. All the safety regulations required in life firing are followed each time we used that range,โ he argued.
