The 2 Brigade Nigerian Army defied early morning rain on Thursday to clean up Akpan Andem market in Uyo, Akwa Ibom capital as a way of cementing a cordial civil-military relationship in the area of operation.
Led by its Commander, Brig. -Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, the army carried out the sanitation as part of activities marking Operation Crocodile Smile IV.
Lagbaja, while speaking with newsmen after the brigade had finished the sanitation exercise at Akpan Andem market in Uyo metropolis said that the cleaning exercise at the market was part of civil military relationship.
He said that the army would continue to ensure that peace and harmony with the civil society.
“What you are witnessing this morning is an environmental sanitation in continuation of our exercise crocodile smile IV.
“The Nigerian army has some statuary role and part of it is to act in need of civil authority and we have discovered overtime.
“We will continue to upgrade in the population domain, we will relate with civil populace, we will relate with every stakeholders and it is part of this relationship that we have come here this morning to clean the environment, especially this market here, cut grasses.
“It is a show of military support to civil populace that we are working in need of them.
“Exercise Crocodile Smile IV is a military exercise that will be driven by intelligent, so it serves two purposes.
“First to assist in training our troops for their day-to-day activities and second, it has an intelligent head, base on intelligence that we will receive from sister agencies, state security service, the police and other agencies, we will act to apprehend criminals and economic saboteurs that operate in the general environment.
“We have population influence activities like environmental sanitation, tomorrow we are going to have medical exercise, we will go into schools and carry out sensitisation,” he said.
The Chairman Akpan Andem Market, Mr Nseabasi Ndoh, commended the Nigerian Army for coming down to keep the market clean in spite of their military engagement.
“The Army Spokesman called me Wednesday and told me that the army are coming, I thought he was joking, by 6 a.m. they were here.
“They said, they were coming to do their normal routine sanitation in the market.
“They came with large a number of their men and they have assisted us to clean the market, they have cut grasses around the market, they have done enormous. So, we are very happy.
“I have been seeing army at a very long distance, but today am so surprise for what they have done, because I have known army with shooting,” he said.
He said that the market committee has set up sanitation taskforce that would checkmate the dumping of refuse in the market to keep it clean.
Mrs Kufre Ekong, one of the traders at the market said that the army urged other organisation to emulate the Nigerian Army.
Ekong said that they have been paying money daily to government agents to evacuate the refuse, wondered why they collected money but would not evacuate the refuse.
She said, “What the military is doing is very impressive provided the government takes up from there.”
Soldiers on sanitation
