ENUGU—The Flag Officer Commanding, FOC, Eastern Naval Command, ENC, Rear Admiral Obiora Medani has urged military personnel to support the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to enable it conduct a peaceful 2015 general elections.

The outgoing FOC made the remark during a farewell parade organized in his honour to mark the end of his tour of duty as the Flag Officer Commanding ENC.

Addressing officers, ratings and civilian staff of the Command, Rear Admiral Obiora Medani drew attention of the personnel to the huge security challenges that lie ahead during the coming elections.

He said it was the responsibility of the military to support the INEC in every way possible to ensure a peaceful and successful conduct of the 2015 Federal and State elections.

He further warned that military personnel must be strictly neutral in discharging whatever security responsibility they have been tasked to carry out in support of INEC.

On the area of his stewardship as the Flag Officer Commanding, the outgoing FOC stated that the past ten months of his administration had been committed to strengthening operations by promoting values that enhanced the fighting efficiency in the Command. He noted that the Command under his watch had keyed into and contributed significantly to the realization of the operational goals of the Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Usman Jibrin.

According to the FOC, this had been achieved through dogged fighting of illegal lifting of the country’s crude oil and illegal harvesting of the rich fishery resources in the Command’s maritime domain by foreign criminal elements and their local collaborators.