North-East elders call on Buhari to sack service chiefs

The Coalition of North-East Elders for Peace and Development has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack his service chiefs.

The Elders made the call in a statement released by its chairman, Engr Zana Goni. They accused the military of deploying soldiers during the #EndSARS protests in parts of the country which left the zone at the mercy of Boko Haram terrorists.  

According to the elders, many residents of the zone were killed as a result of the strategic and operational blunders, which they argued was avoidable if greater tact was adopted by the service chiefs. 

According to the elders, the service chiefs have exhausted their level of intelligence in dealing with the lingering insecurity and should be shown the way out. They opined that the sack of the security chiefs will, no doubt, pave the way for the appointment of a new set of senior officers who will approach their jobs with the highest degree of commitment and enthusiasm. 

“Though the protests in parts of the country may have been suspended, with deaths and destruction of both private and public properties in the trail, we wish to state that the North East also suffered a similar fate during the period of the demonstrations” the statement read

The elders regretted that the unbridled quest to quell the protests by all means possible, and the desire to prove that they were indeed on the ground, left the security of the North East worse than it was. 

“We had thought that the high command of the military would, at least, be proactive enough to know that these insurgents take advantage of loopholes, to perpetrate their wicked acts. 

We are disappointed that these gaps were not covered, thereby giving the terrorists a free rein in many communities, a situation that culminated in many unreported deaths and destruction of property.

Our men, women and children are tired of these unwarranted attacks on communities, in the face of substantial budgetary expenditure on the defence and security sub-sector of the nation. 

We are concerned that our President, Buhari, who is so passionate about leaving an enviable legacy of a prosperous nation in all respect, has remained adamant, as far as the military heads are concerned. This position is despite the unanimous resolution by the Senate and the House of Representatives requesting the sack of the Service Chiefs. 

May we, therefore, reiterate our earlier calls for the removal of Service Chiefs, as their replacement will never be difficult because there are younger generals that are now better positioned to deliver on our expectations. 

We know that our dear President will lose nothing, as loyalty among officers and personnel of the military, is total, absolute and unalloyed, notwithstanding who is saddled with whatever responsibility.”the statement read