The Commandant-General of Nigerian Legion Corps, Brigadier General David Shajaba (rtd), on Thursday, said the Corps was ready to collaborate with other security agencies to curb the menace of insecurity in the country.
To this end, the commandant sought the cooperation of the security agencies to integrate and engage the veterans to fight the insecurity across the country.
Shajaba stated this at a familiarization visit to the Commander, 32 Artillery Brigade, Akure, Brig. Gen. Adamu, and other heads of security agencies in Akure the Ondo State capital.
According to him , the veterans, particularly, Legion Corps had important roles to play in the critical security challenges confronting the country.
He said: “When I took over on the 30th of June 2022, I said for us to move forward, we have to go round and see things on the ground, so that I can see how I can match what I have with my vision and what is practicable. So, I decided to start from the South-West where Ondo State is my second port of call
“My visit is to make members of the Nigerian Army and the Police understand the importance of the corps commissionaire and to be aware of what we can do to fill-in the gap in terms of security, so that we can have our troops performing their main responsibility of training during peace and fighting during war”.
The commandant noted that the Nigerian Legion Act Cap.N119 Laws of the Federation mandates the Nigerian Legion to establish the Nigerian Legion Corps of Commissionaire, to provide job opportunities in order to cater for their dependants’ welfare and other citizens, which ultimately led to the birth of Legion Corps of Commissionaire.
“The corps is a baby of the Ministry of Defence and we were charged with the responsibility of school crime, disaster management, surveillance of infrastructures, legion heart scheme and empowerment as well as humanitarian assistance to veterans families.
“Just like we are going for election in 2023, we will have a role to play and of course, we are supposed to be apolitical. The Corps of Commissionaire is a baby of the Nigeria Legion. The Legion was born from the veterans that fought in the second world war and the civil war. As spelt out in the Legion Act, we are supposed to form Corps of Commissionaires that will perform some duties like taking care of the families of the veterans, immediate children and dependants and was how we started.
“These Commissionaires would help in information gathering because we have trained them. They are supposed to be like informants because they stay in the communities and the information they will pass will be credible, reliable because they’ve been trained in such aspect. Since they’re not armed, the basic thing they could do is to gather information and pass to the armed forces and the police who have licence and strength to handle some of these challenges have been doing that.
“Most of the schools in Oyo state are been monitored by the Commissionaires, so we’ve been performing very well”, Buba stressed.
In his remarks , the Commander, 32 Artillery Brigade, Brigadier Adamu while assuring the visitors of the brigade’s support, charged the corps to use their wealth of experience to lift the corps to the highest height in line with the aims and objectives of its founding fathers.
