The Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack all the service chiefs following the killing of Nigerian soldiers in Matele, Borno State, by Boko Haram insurgents.
Afenifere, in a communiqué it issued after its monthly meeting held at the house of its leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti in Akure, the Ondo State capital today, Tuesday, demanded the probe of what happened to the funds the Federal Government claimed it had expended on security in the country since the beginning of the current administration.
The Publicity Secretary of the group, Yinka Odunmakin, who read the communiqué, said that the service chiefs are already in their retirement years, and wondered why they are still being kept in service by President Buhari.
He said that the decision to keep them 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 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.”
Afenifere said that the massacre of the soldiers deployed to the north-east region to counter terrorism had raised more concerns about the state of the Armed Forces and its combat readiness.
According to the group, despite the $1 billion that the Federal Government claimed it disbursed few months ago to equip the military, Boko Haram still attack soldiers freely even as 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.
“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.”
