The Commandant-General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Abdullahi Gana Muhamadu has read the Riot Act to those who specialise in posting offensive, provocative and disparaging statements on the social media, affirming that their time was up as measures were being taken by his administration to arrest and make those found culpable to feel the full weight of the law.

Muhammadu made this known during the weekly meeting with his management staff at the Corps National Headquarters in Abuja on Monday. He made reference to recent postings making the round in the social medial that the Commandant General was responsible for withholding Cooperative deductions for three months and used it to pay the salary of the newly replaced personnel, and another one that stated that the Federal Government had approved the recruitment of 10,000 Graduate and 30,000 non-Graduate personnel for the Corps, which were severally refuted by the appropriate authorities and still going viral.

In a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja, Soji Alabi, Assistant Commandant of Corps and Media Assistant to the Commandant General stated: “This abuse of social media has not only caused embarrassment to the Corps, but has also cast aspersions on the person of the Commandant General and is seeing as a diversionary measure to dissuade him from carrying out his responsibilities.

“The Commandant General informed that the perpetrators of these ignoble acts are members of the Corps with their external collaborators and he will stop at nothing to track them and bring them to justice. The relevant units within the Corps have been mandated and mobilised to deploy their internal mechanisms while not ruling out the collaboration with the Nigerian military to monitor the social media for anti-Corps, anti-government and anti-security communication and track them.

“He has also directed all Deputy Commandant Generals, Zonal Commanders, State Commandants, Area Commanders and Divisional officers to be on close watch and monitor events in their areas of responsibility and report appropriately.

“While the Commandant General welcomes constructive criticism and maintains an open door policy, he frowns at the abuse of the social media and believes that the social media should be used positively to help government and security agencies to fight crime, promote good governance and share information.

“To set the record straight, one of the major priorities of the Commandant General upon assumption of duty few months back was personnel welfare. He believes that ‘the ability of the Corps to handle its mandate can be attributed to the existence of a well-trained and highly motivated workforce’.

“He has in the last two years sponsored over 10,000 personnel on several workshops, seminars and intensive training programmes both at home and abroad, to enhance their capacity to diligently deliver on the Corp’s mandate within the available limited resources.

“Personnel salaries are paid promptly and other allowances are paid directly into their accounts, while uniforms and other kits were provided for them. Every officer and men of the Corps is insured against accident, death and disability in the course of carrying out their duties. The long standing accumulated Duty shift allowances that was deducted by the previous administration was paid by the administration of Abdullahi Gana Muhammadu.

“Death benefits of Officers and men who lost their lives in the course of discharging their duties are paid promptly to their recognised next of kin and in some cases some of them are compensated with employment opportunities whenever possible. He has personally visited injured officers in the hospitals and paid off their bills.

“As a symbol of welfarism, he has visited severally officers and men deployed to the North – East and Niger Delta to show solidarity with them.”

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