Rumoured Coup: Despite denials, military places soldiers on surveillance 

Despite initially denying the veracity of claims by Niger Delta Militants that top officers in the military approached them over a coup plot against President Muhammadu Buhari, military authorities in the country may have begun  discreet investigation into the allegation.

To this end, the Military has started monitoring telephone conversations and text messages of officers and soldiers while  also beefing up security in all military formations and barracks.

This was disclosed on Sunday by the General Officer Commanding, GOC, 81 Division of the Nigerian Army, Lagos, Major General Isidore Edet, during the Interdenominational church Service at Saint Charles Lwanga Catholic Church in Ikeja Cantonment., to mark this year’s Nigerian Army Day celebration.

Major General Edet, who urged personnel to guard their utterances, said:  “The Chief of Army Staff, COAS wants us to  remind ourselves that at this critical point in our national life and especially in Lagos and the Military where there are rumours of coup, whether they are perceived or real, that as soldiers we should be very careful of the company we keep.

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”What we need to do as soldiers is to be on the guard, to be watchful of the people that go in and out of the barracks, our mammy markets and places where we eat. We should be careful of what we hear them say by listening attentively so that we can pick what they are saying or planning because when those people want to do this things they come into the barracks and try to incite the barracks community on things that are happening in the country, with words like: ‘’Don’t you think you should do something?’’

‘’Maybe they buy you drinks and fish and while you drink and eat with them, they start a conversation. Report such people so that you do not say I didn’t know at the end.

“Mind what you say and the company you keep. Your telephone conversation is something you should be very careful about because whatever you say or heard are being monitored. Whatever you send through the medium is being intercepted and collated so be careful”, he said.

Edet also revealed that the alleged planned coup was being investigated.

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