Nigerian Army is to deploy two hundred and thirty personnel, including nineteen officers and two hundred and eleven soldiers to Liberia.

Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai said this while speaking in Kaduna at the end of a four-week intensive training on leadership and peacekeeping for the personnel, charging them to shun acts that could tarnish Nigeria’s image.

Buratai said they must observe human rights, and respect the cultural and religious sensitivities of Liberians, saying since nineteen sixty, Nigeria had deployed over twenty thousand troops to forty peacekeeping missions in Africa and across the world.

Earlier, the Nigerian Army Peacekeeping Centre, Jaji was renamed Martin Luther Agwai International Leadership and Peacekeeping Centre, in recognition of his commitment to peacekeeping efforts and excellent service.

The centre was established in twenty-zero-four by Agwai as a Wing, when he was the Chief of Army Staff.

Speaking, Agwai noted that peacekeeping was gradually becoming an intra-country issue with the military at the centre stage following internal conflicts such as ethnic, religious other crises.

He, however, noted that Nigeria has been involved in peacekeeping operations in Africa and world at large, but had not reaped the economic and diplomatic benefits of such venture.

Agwai, who was also a Chief of Defence Staff, called on government and private-owned organisations to partner the centre in leadership training on conflict prevention and management in the quest to achieve enduring peace.

He thanked current and past leadership of the army for the honour done him by naming the centre after him.

Agwai, was former Deputy Force Commander, United Nations Peacekeeping Operation in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), Chief of Army Staff Nigerian Army, Force Commander of African Union/United Nations Mission Hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

He was later Special Adviser to Secretary-General of the UN.