The Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere has called for the removal of Nigeria’s Service Chiefs.
The call is coming on the heels over the killings of the last week’s attack on the 157 Task Force Battalion in Metele, Borno State by Boko Haram terrorists.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the monthly meeting of the group held at the home of its leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti in Akure, the Ondo State Capital, the group demanded a probe into the killing of over 100 soldiers by the terrorist group, as well as how the fund recently expended on the military was utilized.
According to the communiqué read by the group’s National Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, the Service Chiefs were already in their retirement years but still kept in service by President Buhari.
Afenifere maintained that the decision of the President to keep the Service Chiefs in service had killed morale in the armed forces as three sets of officers had had their careers stagnated.
“The sack of the service Chiefs should be followed with a probe of what has happened to defense allocations as we as a people cannot reconcile our extremely vulnerable troops and wailing solders in the forest with the heavy spending the government claimed it has committed to security,” the communiqué read.
Afenifere lamented what it described as high insensitivity of the Federal Government without given the soldiers the respect they deserve, even in death.
“First, it kept quiet for six days after the incident and when it found its voice, there were no soothing words for the bereaved families.
“It had hardly made the bland statements before descending into the gutter of political quarreling over the killings at a time a more sensitive leadership should have declared national mourning for the high casualties recorded which many countries never matched in wars that lasted for several years.
“Our hearts go to all bereaved families and officers and men of our armed forces at this grievous moment.
“It is our prayer that God will comfort them and intervene in the affairs of our country and give us a leadership that is more than equal to the challenges we face.”
The group, which also decried the continuous criminal activities of armed herdsmen in the South West, particularly the recent kidnapping of six persons in Ondo, again advocated for the state policing for better and efficient security measures in the country.
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