Lt Gen Lagbaja: Army recruitment is centered on candidate competence.

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Taofeek Lagbaja, has stated that Army enlistment procedures are based on candidate competence.

Lagbaja asserted this in Asaba, rejecting the idea that aspirants must have godfathers or ties to join the armed forces.

Brigadier General Witto Nzidee, representing the Chief of Army Staff, urged Delta State youths aged 18 to 22 to participate in the ongoing Army recruitment operation to satisfy the state's quota.

"The registration is presently online, and the site is open. They should go, click, and register, and I guarantee that anyone who is fit to serve in the army will be recruited.

"The concept that you need to know someone before joining the army is incorrect. I am now a Brigadier General in the Nigerian Army, and I don't know anyone," he remarked.

Nzidee added that some states in the Southeast and South-South regions of the country failed to reach their quotas in recent Army recruitment exercises, prompting the effort to encourage young people in the state to register in the Nigerian Army's 88th regular recruitment procedure.

He stated that it is necessary to raise awareness among the state government and Deltans that if they do not use their army quota, other states will.

"You cannot blame some of these young people since they are unaware of the situation. That is why we have come to raise awareness, urging the best to join us as partners in the advancement and development of Delta State, and, of course, Nigeria as a whole," he remarked.

Meanwhile, Brig General Unachukwu Ugochukwu, Commander of 63 Brigade Asaba, has urged competent youths in the state to seize the opportunity to be gainfully employed, while also emphasizing that Delta State did not fulfill its quota in the previous recruiting campaign.