The army has accused politicians of providing thugs with military uniforms to impersonate soldiers and perpetrate various crimes in furtherance of their political interests.

Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sagir Musa, stated yesterday that the thugs had severally been wrongly viewed and addressed as real military personnel on various social and mainstream media, thereby bringing the army to disrepute.He said: “Nigeria Army (NA) understands that most civilians caught in the callous onslaught of these murderous thugs might not be able to distinguish a genuine soldier from an impersonator, especially when they are armed with military-type weapons.”

Sagir said several of such impostors that were arrested had given useful information that led to unravelling the level of criminal involvement of some politicians in arming thugs for their depraved selfish gains.“Consequently, the NA would continue with the line of investigations being pursued to bring to successful prosecution both the arrested impostors and their sponsors.

“In the interim, the NA would continue to advise well-meaning citizens to avoid being used as tools by such wicked politicians who would go to any immoral length, including meting out violence, to steal popular mandate. Nobody’s selfish ambition is worth the life of an innocent Nigerian citizen.”He added that the army would continue to use every available opportunity to remind Nigerians of its apolitical, neutral and non-partisan stance.

“The NA would continue to execute its constitutional responsibilities of providing aid to civil authorities, to create a safe and secure environment where real democratic processes would thrive.

“To this end, the NA would gladly welcome any information from the public about known or suspected impostors/armed thugs being used to perpetrate violence in the society, for the furtherance of the wicked ambitions of any individual. Please be assured that such information would be treated with the highest level of confidentiality,” he promised.