The use of phones when approaching a military checkpoint is wrong because it is a security loophole, Chief of Civil-Military Affairs, Major-General Usman Mohammed said on Monday.

Major-General Mohammed was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily when he was asked why the military frowns on motorists using their phones while approaching a checkpoint.

“It is a security measure for when you are approaching a checkpoint,” he said, “you don’t make phone calls. Because the tendency is that if you are making a phone call, you might be communicating with some bad guys. Or you may use that particular device to set up some certain devices.

“It is a general convention; it is not peculiar to Nigeria, it is everywhere; people who have travelled abroad know that you don’t make phone calls when approaching a checkpoint.”

Meanwhile, the Major-General stressed that relations between the military and civilians were improving.

He also noted that while human rights violations have not been eliminated, the military is working assiduously to limit such crimes.

“We soldiers are part of the society,” he said. “We didn’t fall from the sky. We are a product of the society in which we are operating. Where you have one or two individuals behaving differently from what the military stands for, you don’t say everybody is abusing human rights.

“Where those occur, we identify those individuals, investigate and sanctions are applied.

“But generally, we are doing a lot in terms of educating our personnel, and also we are instituting measures to ensure that human rights violations are reduced to the barest minimum.” (Channels TV)

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