Nigeria’s Minister for Defence Major General Bashir Magashi (retd.) has disclosed that no fewer than 200 Nigerian soldiers are serving in the Economic Community For West Africa State mission in the Gambia.

A statement issued on Friday by Magashi's Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mohammad Abdulkadir, revealed that the minister made the disclosure while he and the Gambian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mohamadou Njie, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of their countries at the Ministry of Defence Headquarters in Abuja.

He added that as contained in the MoU, the number of candidates might increase in the future.

The statement was titled, ‘Bilateral cooperations: Nigeria, Gambia sign Memorandum of Understanding.’

It read, “A Memorandum of Understanding between the Governments of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of the Gambia on Military Cooperations has been signed.

“It is also on record that Nigeria has been playing big brotherly roles to the Republic of the Gambia in stabilising her polity and resolving its electoral impasse in 2016.

“Nigeria currently deployed over two hundred forces serving in the ECOWAS Mission in the Gambia, ECOMIG and presently enlisted the Gambian Military officers and personnel into various institutions in the country with prospects for more intake of candidates in the coming years as contained in the MoU.

“Specific instances and references were made to the expectations from the newly formalised diplomatic ties between the two countries.

“They include boosting of the hitherto existing joint military manoeuvrability, operability as well as tactical and technical synergy.

“Other areas enshrined in the MoU include enhanced networking in intelligence sharing, capacity building and the need to emplace robust counter transnational strategy to decisively clear the effrontery and the audacity of the adversaries threatening the corporate existence of the two coastal nations who share common Membership of African Union, ECOWAS and geographical similarities within the West African Sub-region.”