- General Irabor stated that the plaza should remain closed until those responsible for the attack are arrested and brought to justice
Former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor (retd.), has expressed support for the military’s decision to shut down Banex Plaza in Abuja following an attack on soldiers by hoodlums.
The Army closed the plaza after soldiers were assaulted by a group of hoodlums last weekend. General Irabor stated that the plaza should remain closed until those responsible for the attack are arrested and brought to justice.
He emphasized that an attack on any uniformed personnel is an attack on the state, which all Nigerians must condemn. Speaking on Arise TV on Tuesday night, Irabor noted that the soldiers might have been lynched if not for the quick intervention of the police.
He said, “As a Nigerian who has served in the armed forces, of course, retired now, and at the level I did, it would be inappropriate if I see what is going wrong and I could not talk about it. So, from that context, I would say the Bannex Plaza attack is a sad one. Sad one in the sense that when you see soldiers in uniform, whether armed or not, you raise your hands against that individual. Besides being a soldier, for any uniformed person, as long as he is an agent of the state, any attack on him is an attack on the state.
“As so, every Nigerian of goodwill must condemn such act. As for me, I join to support the closure of the plaza for as long as it takes to have everyone responsible for that dastardly act to be brought to justice. This is because if we fail to do so, then we’ll be calling for anarchy.
“The only men who are sacrificing their lives to ensure our collective goods are men of the armed forces, police, and other security agencies. And on a slight provocation, they are now attacked and if not for the policemen and other private individuals who rescued the soldiers, then we would have witnessed Okuoma II which of course, does not speak good of us.”