Ohanaeze Ndigbo backs National Assembly’s call for removal of service chiefs

Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, yesterday, expressed support for calls by members of the National Assembly to remove the nation’s service chiefs for their failure to tackle insecurity in the country.

It stated that their continued stay in office in the face of growing insecurity, banditry and terrorism had become a national and international embarrassment to the nation.
President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, told The Guardian in Enugu that Ndigbo were opposed to President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media, Femi Adesina’s response to the request, stressing, “His position is unacceptable and an insult to Nigerians, who are at the receiving end of the attacks and killings.”

Nwodo, who wondered why the Federal Government had remained intransigent on their removal and save the nation from further calamity, insisted that Nigerians had lost confidence in current service chiefs.

Reacting to the recent killing of Nigerian Army officers and soldiers by bandits in Katsina and Boko Haram’s execution of five aid workers, Nwodo lamented that innocent lives of young Nigerians and foreigners were being wasted daily due to Federal Government’s refusal to do the needful.

The group further wondered what was special about the current service chiefs that made them indispensable, adding that it was unconstitutional to keep people in service after they were due for retirement.

He noted that the continued retention of the service chiefs went against the grains of military service, which he said, would breed bad blood among other officers whose career have been stunted by government’s action.

Nwodo argued that it was not surprising that there were overt dissensions in the military with soldiers resigning in their large numbers due to dissatisfaction and disaffection coupled with alleged corruption in the nation’s Armed Forces. He pointed out that the situation suggested that there was more to their retention than the country’s interest, which he said, the Federal Government needed to explain to Nigerians.