GARBA Shehu, the senior special assistant on media and publicity to the President Muhammadu Buhari, has described repeated and renewed calls to sack the nation’s service chiefs as out of place.
Garba, who stated this during an interview on Arise Television stated that it is the prerogative of the president to appoint or sack any of the country’s service chiefs.
While stating that he was not aware that the tenure of the service chiefs are subjected to any law or regulation Garba added that the president can keep the service chiefs as long as he is satisfied with their performance.
“I am not aware that the tenure of service chiefs is subjected to any law or regulation that is clearly stated. They serve at the pleasure of the president and (if) the president is satisfied with their performance, he keeps them. The buck stops on his table —with due respect to the feelings of Nigerians,” he said.
“The clamour for the sack is out of place considering that the president is not subject to the opinion of the opposition political party which has clamoured for this all the time. It is entirely his own determination; he decides who he keeps as his service chiefs and for how long.”
Garba’s statement is coming 24-hours he told the BBC on Monday that the 110 farmers murdered by Boko Haram on Saturday evening in Zabarmari, a community in Jere Local Government Area of Borno state did not get military clearance before proceeding to their farms.
Clarifying the criticism that followed the statement, Garba explained he only said during the interview that the military had not certified those areas as being free of landmines and terrorists.
“My suggestion in the earlier news report is that the military had not certified those areas as being free of landmines and terrorists’ intrusions. Whether there are processes for getting licences or commissions, it is not for me, the military is in a better position to describe those processes,” he said.
Nigerians and various socio-political associations have seen the need for the president to create room for fresh ideas in the fight against terrorism and ravaging insecurity in the country by sacking his service chiefs who he appointed in 2015.
In July, the Nigeria Senate asked President Buhari to ask the service chiefs to step aside in a resolution moved by Ali Ndume who was ambushed by suspected bandits in Katsina State, leading to the death of 16 soldiers and 28 others, wounded.
But in a swift response, Femi Adesina, Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, then said the presidency noted the “resolution and the president as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, will do what is in the best interest of the country at all times.”
Adesina reminded the senate how it is only in the prerogative of the president to appoint and sack his service chiefs.
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