Following the killing of Nigerian troops in Metele, Borno State by terrorist sect, Book Haram, Afenifere, the Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, has called on President Muhammmadu Buhari to remove all the service chiefs.
According to Afenifere, the service chiefs were already in their retirement years but were still being kept in office, to the detriment of other officers. The group noted that this has not only hampered the moral of soldiers but also stagnated the careers of three set of officers.
This was contained in a communique it issued on Tuesday, after its monthly meeting held at the house of its leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
While speaking, Yinka Odunmakin, Publicity Secretary to Afenifere, demanded the probe of how the funds the Federal Government claimed it had expended on security in the country since the beginning of the current administration was spent.
“The sack of the service Chiefs should be followed with a probe of what has happened to defence 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,” he said
Afenifere noted that the massacre of the soldiers deployed to the north-east region to counter terrorism raises more concerns about the state of the Armed Forces and its combat readiness.
According to the group, despite the $1bn that the Federal Government claimed it disbursed few months ago to equip the military, Boko Haram still attacks soldiers freely.
It decried the consistent media propaganda being deployed by the Federal Government in the war against the insurgency and the insensitivity to the plight of soldiers on the battlefield.
“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,” the group said.
“It had hardly made the bland statements before descending into the gutter of political quarrelling 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.”
