When soldiers dropped guns for brooms, shovels

Laide Raheem, Abeokuta

In commemoration of the Nigerian Army Day celebration on July 6, men and officers of 192 Battalion (Rear), Owode-Yewa, recently embarked on a massive environmental sanitation exercise at Atan Junction, along Sango-Owode-Idi-Iroko Road in Ogun State.

The soldiers, who were led by their Commanding Officer, Major Victor Adekole Oche, were dressed in their fatigues and armed with sanitation equipment such as brooms, shovels, rakes, head pans and diggers. Apart from the cleaning exercise, the army also brought tipper loads of granite stones to fill up the bad and waterlogged portions of the road.

Some of the residents of the area, who were hitherto scared of the presence of the soldiers on environmental sanitation day later trooped out to join the soldiers in the sanitation exercise.

Commending the army for choosing the location of the exercise, a resident, Pastor Ponle Adewale, described the gesture as a great step in improving army-civilian relationships.

He added that the work by the soldiers further showed the importance of a clean environment to the civilian residents.

The cleric, who called for more cooperation between the military and civilians, advocated more of such community work to further bridge the gap between ordinary people and soldiers, not just in Owode-Yewa, but in other surrounding communities.

Echoing the cleric, the unit chairman of Articulated Motorcycle Riders Association of Nigeria (AMORAN), Orita Atan, Kehinde Oke, lauded the men and officers of 192 Battalion (Rear), for helping the community in cleaning up and evacuating refuse, particularly on the roadside. He added that the palliative measures done on the bad portion of the road by the soldiers would go a long way in relieving motorists of pains experienced on the road.

Oke, who expressed joy at the sanitation intervention, said he would henceforth rally his association to carry out regular sanitation exercise at their park.

For Annabel Onu, the exercise by the soldiers came to the residents as a surprise, and she commended the gesture. She noted that when she first sighted the soldiers, she thought they were on the spot to enforce the sanitation exercise. She praised them for helping civilians with the environmental clean-up exercise.