New army depot’ll bring peace, development in South East

From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki

The Nigerian Army has said its new training depot established in Ebonyi State, South East will bring peace and rapid development in the area.

President Bola Tinubu had in mid 2025 unbundled the depot, Nigeria Army, Kaduna which had over the years been the only military training Centre in the country and approved a depot for South East.

Amasiri and Amangwu in Afikpo and Edda Local Government areas of Ebonyi State was approved for the one of South East.

The 618 hectares of land belonging to the two neighbouring communities approved for the training depot, was officially handed over to the military by Governor Francis Nwifuru on Tuesday evening in a ceremony attended by top military and government officials and the two communities.

Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Wayeed Shuaibu represented by Major General Oluremi Fadeiro, General Officer Commanding 82 Division and Commander Joint Task Force Southeast Operation Udoka said the socio-economic development the training depot will bring to the communities, state and southeast in general were quite enormous.

He said the purpose of approving the depot was to improve the security network in the state and the entire south East.

Shuaibu disclosed that about 3,000 recruits will be coming to the depot for training and that the number of the recruits that will be trained after the first set will increase to 7,000.

He added that many facilities including churches, mosques, markets and other infrastructure will be built in the depot.

“The soldiers that will be trained here are already training somewhere and it is hoped that when they are passing out, they are going to pass out on this piece of land. So, work will commence on this land immediately.

“The social -economic development this will bring to this community, this entire state is quite enormous and we are looking at improving the security network within the state also.

“From the start, we are almost 3,000 recruits that will be coming here and from time to time, the army will continue to increase the number. You can imagine almost about 7,000 on this piece of land over a time including their families.

“We are building churches here, a mosque, mammy market, and all other infrastructure that is known in the army. And also we will be making use of the market around and so many facilities around this place,” he said.

Governor Francis Nwifuru, while handing over the land to the military, expressed the hope that the depot will help to maintain peace in the host communities.

“We had a very terrible disagreement between the people of Amasiri/Amangwu Edda last year on the same land.The essence of giving this land to the military is to maintain peace and to maintain rule of law and to maintain order,” he said.

He assured that his administration will continue to prioritize the security of the people and announced his administration’s readiness to decimate the influences of armed non-state actors in the state.

“Security is critically prioritised by the People’s Charter of Needs Agenda, a sociopolitical compass that guides our administration.

“I am here today to formally handover the title documents of the land to the Nigerian Army.

“It is a strategic initiative and will complement other efforts to enhance the capacity of the Nigerian Army.

“The Southeast region is in dire need of security and this will also have economic benefits for our people. It will also increase civil-military relations”, he said.

He enjoined the army to ensure professionalism and discipline in their dealings with the host communities.