Abuja-Nigeria — The President of the ECOWAS Commission, His Excellency Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo, has commended members of the Nigerian Armed Forces for their immense contribution to peace and stability in the region.
"On behalf of our Community Institutions and myself, I want to pay a special tribute to the Nigerian Armed Forces for their support to ECOWAS' peacekeeping efforts through the then ECOMOG, and now in Guinea Bissau and the proposed peace mission in Mali," he told a delegation that visited him on Wednesday, 9th January 2012, as part of the Nigerian Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration. President Ouédraogo also paid tribute to Nigeria's fallen military heroes and expressed solitary with their families.
He equally thanked the Nigerian Legion for the services being rendered by its members to the ECOWAS Commission and other Community Institutions based in country.
The leader of the delegation, Major-General Salihu Uba, Director, Veteran Affairs Division of the Ministry of Defence, who later decorated the ECOWAS Chief with the 2013 Nigerian Armed Forces emblem, expressed his gratitude to ECOWAS for supporting the legionnaires.
He highlighted the importance of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day, marked on 15th January annually to acknowledge the services of the Nigerian Armed Forces and in honour of the departed military heroes. Major-General Uba was accompanied on the visit to the Commission by the National Chairman, Nigerian Legion, Colonel Micah Gayya (retired) and Commander Yinka Sogbesan, a Staff Officer in the Ministry of Defence.