FG warns hoodlums against violence

The Federal Government has warned hoodlums who are trying to take over the strike and turn it into a riot that they will be properly dealt with because that is not the intention of labour. The Minister of Defence, Dr  Mohammed Haliru Bello, who gave the warning on Sunday while answering questions from newsmen after the laying of wreath marking the end of the 2012 Armed Forces Remembereance Day, said people should not panic as security was assured in this country.

According to him, Nigerians should live where they were living now as nobody had the power to ask anybody to leave. "We are all Nigerians. Security services have been directed to protect Nigerians wherever they are living," he said. He warned that anybody who attempted to harass any Nigerian anywhere would face the full wrath of the law, adding that the security forces were ready.

"Nigerians should remain calm and stay where they are. The strike is being negotiated with labour. Only the labour is leading strike because of their grouse with the government."

The minister disclosed that the Federal Government had strong plans for the legionnaires: “In fact we are planning to set up a foundation for legionnaires," he said.

He said that only two days ago, they launched the pension scheme of removing the retired military officers from the civilian pension scheme and bringing them back to the military pension scheme because the rate of payment is different and they wanted to make sure that they were properly paid.

The Federal Government, according to him, has released N7 billion to pay the arrears and payment will start this week, beginning an era of prompt payment of pensions.

Also he anounced that all the services have retirement housing scheme and these services are meant to be allotted to service and retired officers so that they can pay gradually over a long period of time without hardship.

The Chief of Defence Staff, Air chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin also answering questions from newsmen said that they had honoured the fallen heroes and they had shown them, adding, “these are the things that we do to make sure that we remember them, that we do not forget them, we will do our best to remember them.

Take care of their families, dependant."

On sectarian violence the CDS said " You see I think you the press, you have a lot to do with it. I think what is happening is that every riffraff keeps sending text messages, threatening this and threatening that. And we all know that all these things are lies, they are just meant to get people to be anxious and cause panic unnecessarily."

"So please members of the press, you should educate the public and tell them not to mind all these silly texts and silly rumours that are flying all over the place. Nigeria is safer than most places in Africa even as we speak."

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