Killings of Soldiers: Only President Buhari can sack Service Chiefs, Presidency replies Senate

The Presidency has replied the Nigerian senate request for the service chiefs to step aside, stating that only President Buhari can sack them.

WITHIN NIGERIA recalls that the upper chamber had earlier today asked the Service Chiefs to step down or get sacked for rising insecurity in the nation, especially the recent killing of soldiers and mass resignation in the military.

The resolution of the upper legislative chamber followed a motion sponsored by Ali Ndume, senator representing Borno south and chairman of the committee on army.

Gabriel Olonisakin, chief of defence staff; Tukur Buratai, chief of army staff; Sadique Abubakar, chief of air staff; and Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, chief of naval staff; are all due for retirement.

Senator Ali Ndume cites order 42(1) and 52 to seek the leave of the Senate to Present a Motion on rising number of casualties among the Nigerian Army and other security agencies recently to ambushes.

Senate resolves to:

i. Observe a minute’s silence in honour of the fallen heroes;

ii. Urge the Federal Government to urgently intensify the provision of modern equipment to enhance the operational capabilities of our armed forces;

iii. Mandate the Joint Committees on Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Defence, and Interior to receive briefings on the state of affairs of the services in this regard; and

iv. Mandate the Service Chiefs to step aside for new ones to come in.

“The spirit of this motion is that our armed forces are trying very heard. The good is still not enough. We need to continue to encourage and provide for them. They lay their lives on behalf of all of us and it is very sad that some of them have deserted the war front.

“…This our Joint Committees should get to the root of about 200 soldiers who have deserted. And my condolences to the families of the fallen heroes” – @DrAhmadLawan

Meanwhile, the Presidency has replied Senate on its request for sack of service chiefs, in a statement on twitter. Presidency stressed that the appointment and relieve of appointment of the Service chiefs can only be decided by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The statement read;

“The Senate on Tuesday adopted a resolution calling on the Service Chiefs to resign or be sacked due to the multi-pronged security challenges in the country.

“The Presidency notes the resolution, and reiterates that appointment or sack of Service Chiefs is a Presidential prerogative, & President Muhammadu Buhari, in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, will do what is in the best interest of the country at all times.”