Chief of Defence Staff, Christopher Musa, and other top military officials were denied Canadian visas to attend an event in honour of veterans injured in battles.

He said, “Yesterday, I was meant to be in Canada. There’s an event to honour our veterans, those that were injured during battles, and we were meant to be there, we were invited with our team. Half has gone and half has been denied.”

The CDS disclosed this at the National Association of the Institute for Security Studies (AANISS) annual lecture on Thursday. But did not state why he and other military officials were denied visas.

Mr Musa’s revelation followed a retired Nigerian cop’s, Martins Nwokolo, asylum denial on the ground that the Nigeria Police Force was notorious for extortion, bribery, and other vices.

Earlier in February, Peoples Gazette reported how the retired cop’s asylum application got rejected twice and his attempt to get the refusal reviewed was denied by Madam Justice Ngo of a federal court in Ontario, Canada.

Reacting to Mr Musa’s statement on visa denial by Canadian authorities, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, said Canada denying Nigerian top military officials visas was disrespectful, adding it was time to fix Nigeria.

Mr Ribadu said, “Thank you for the courage to say Canada denied you visas. They can go to hell. Even though it’s painful, it’s disrespectful, but we are peaceful and strong and I agree with you that it is time to fix our country. Yet, this is another reason we work hard to make Nigeria work.”