Senate Committee on Ethics,
Privileges and Public Petitions, yesterday walked out Major Daniel Ehicheoya
of the Nigerian Army Directorate of Legal Services, a representative of the
Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Yusuf Tukur Buratai.
This occurred at a hearing into a
petition on compulsory retirement by Lt. Col. Abdulfatai Mohammed.
Mohammed’s case is part of a
petition involving 21 other officers: two Major Generals, five Brigadier
Generals, eight Colonels and seven Lieutenant Colonels, all compulsorily
retired in June 2016.
The lawmakers expressed displeasure that Buratai, despite his insistence that the letter inviting him must be signed by Chairman of the Committee, did not appear.
The lawmakers expressed displeasure that Buratai, despite his insistence that the letter inviting him must be signed by Chairman of the Committee, did not appear.
The Chairman, Senator Samuel
Anyanwu, said “I was called two weeks ago that the Chief of Army Staff said I
must sign the letter to him personally.
”So how come he is not here? It
is an insult to us. When invitation letters are signed, it is by the Clerk, but
he insisted I sign his. We have invited the Air Force Chief and he came here,”
Anyanwu said.
Senator Mao Ohuabunwa (Abia
North) condemned the compulsory retirement.
“How can they just summarily
retire young men, whom the country has spent so much money training?” he
quipped.
In his address, Mohammed told
the committee that he was wrongfully retired after 22 years of meritorious
service in the Army which included an award of the First Order of Merit at the
India Staff College.
“I was in my office on June 9,
2016 when I received a call that I have been compulsorily retired,” he
recalled.
“I never received any query, nor faced a disciplinary panel, nor gotten into an altercation with any of my superiors.”
“I never received any query, nor faced a disciplinary panel, nor gotten into an altercation with any of my superiors.”
Mohammed said he was posted to
Konduga in 2013 at the height of the Boko Haram crises and was part of the
pivotal unit that ensured the strategic town did not fall to the hands of the
insurgents.
“The day after I was retired, the
NA declared in the media that the affected officers were involved in
partisanship in the 2015 general election; that I was involved in election
partisanship while on election duty in Edo State,” he said.
Mohammed insisted that he was
nowhere in or around Edo State at the time of the elections, nor was he
involved in election duty in any part of the country.
“The NA records show that I was
actually fighting to protect this country in the North-east during the
elections and I earned two commendations for bravery for risking my life for
this country”.
He accused the leadership of the
army of surreptitiously substituting the names of culpable officers with his
name and other innocent officers in a gross act of corruption and deliberately
misled the president on the matter.
Mohammed called for justice not
just for himself but to protect fighting men and women who are risking their
lives to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria.
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Brutai and Buhari, as old as they are they are planning stay long in the office and keep retiring young officers whom the country needs mostly, I tell u Buhari and Brutai are agent and the originator of Boko Haram quote me, let's see how u pocket Nigeria as events unfolding
ReplyDeleteThank you...They will being Retired officer to run Nigeria Customs, retired Officer from Daura to run DSS. How will the young learn, if they can’t grow to lead their organisations and yet he will retire young active office. PMB, a stack illiterate has doomed this country.
DeleteThis is not the first time such things are happening in Nigeria go and check when Obasanjo took over in 1999 how
ReplyDeleteMany young officers and officers who have just finished their courses from over sea ,Obasanjo retired them for because they are Abacha boy's and they may plan coup against him. Nothing more than that.
so all evils that any gov did is correct
DeleteA round of applause to you Zali (Government agent with foreign name). God will judge you all.
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