Buhari meets Service Chiefs today over Boko Haram

The fate of all the Service Chiefs will be determined today as indications emerged, yesterday, that President Muhammadu Buhari, in his capacity as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces will meet with them.

Sources said the main agenda will be the battle against terrorism and the relocation of Command and Control Centre of the military to Maiduguri, Borno State capital. It was gathered that the Service Chiefs may be asked to voluntarily retire from service to give way to new appointees.

Buhari

According to the source, the plan of President Buhari to relocate the Command and Control Centre to Maiduguri in order to put an end to terrorism did not receive the support of the military high command, hence he needs those who would be ready to work in line with his thinking.

Last Friday, the President in his inaugural speech said victory over the Boko Haram would remain a mirage unless the Command and Control Centre (service chiefs) is relocated to the theatre of operation.

He had said: “The most immediate is Boko Haram insurgency. Progress has been made in recent weeks by our security forces but victory cannot be achieved by basing the Command and Control Centre in Abuja.

“The command centre will be relocated to Maiduguri and remain until Boko Haram is completely subdued. But we cannot claim to have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents. This government will do all it can to rescue them alive.”

Though President Buhari’s speech was hailed by many people, military sources, who spoke with some journalists, yesterday, in Abuja expressed reservations about the directive which they see as an “attempt to frustrate and humiliate our chiefs before sacking them.

“Some of us have analyzed the speech and our conclusion is that President Buhari did not appreciate the efforts put in place in fighting the terrorists. In the whole speech, he did not commend us at all but instead seemed to agree with the cynics that we have not been observing human rights in our operations.

Source: Vanguard