Major General Johnson Ochoga
The Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai has declared that there is no better time than now to execute the mass retirement of some senior officers, stressing that no innocent military officer was affected by the exercise carried out by the military authorities.
He explained that the procedure for their retirement was painstakingly and thoroughly done to forestall the punishment of the innocent military officers.
The COAS made this known yesterday when he led a top delegation of the army to a courtesy call on the Minister of Communications, Barr Adebayo Shittu, in his office in Abuja.
According to him, “There is no better time for the retrenchment than now. It took us long time with painstaking investigation and procedures to ensure that we don’t pick the innocent ones. We started with enquiry first of all which a senior officer chaired. After that we did the legal review and after the legal review we forwarded our results to the higher authority for consideration.
“So the people were given fair hearing and just like in the court process we also have our legal department which give every officer fair hearing on issue like this. So, I think this is right time for the officers to go.”
Speaking on the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East and the activities of the Nigeria Delta Avengers in the South-South, Buratai told newsmen that the military is not overwhelmed by these threats to national security.
Commenting on his mission to the Federal Ministry of Communications, Buratai said he was in the ministry to seek collaboration in the areas of communication security, satellite and data communication.
Responding, the minister pledged the support of the ministry and its agencies to ensure that the fight against insurgency is won, noting that Nigeria is proud of military achievements in containing the activities of Boko Haram
While noting that the prosecution of war is, in today’s world, done better through the deployment of communication technology, he said, “If you look at countries like China, Singapore, South Korea where reliance has been on knowledge economy rather than resource economy you will see that that they have made giant strides and I’m happy that the Chief of Army Staff has realized this and have decided to pay a visit with a view to getting collaboration between the army and this ministry and I believe that only the best can come out of this collaboration that we are laying today.”
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