Pascal Arogorn Ibe
President Muhammadu Buhari is currently meeting with the new service Chiefs.
The meeting is being held behind closed-door at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
This first meeting between the Commander-In-Chief and the new leaders of the Armed Forces is coming one day after the president accepted the immediate resignation of the older Service Chiefs and appointed new officers as replacements.
The new Service Chiefs are Major-General Leo Irabor, Chief of Defence Staff; Major-General I. Attahiru, Chief of Army Staff; Rear Admiral A.Z Gambo, Chief of Naval Staff; and Air-Vice Marshal I.O Amao, Chief of Air Staff.
Their appointment comes after numerous calls for the sack of the former Service Chiefs over the increasing insecurity in the country.
As far back as July, the Nigerian Senate had called on the service chiefs to step aside.
The Senate reiterated its call in December after 43 farmers were killed in Zabarmari, Borno State, by Boko Haram terrorists.
Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, in a Channels Television interview, stressed that the President was breaking the law by keeping the Service Chiefs, who had been in their positions since 2015.
“The President is breaking the law, the law says if you are 60 you must go, it is automatic,” Shekarau said.
“If you are 35 years in service, you must go. In fact, they are not staff of Mr. President, they are the staff of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and there is a rule.”
Members of the main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party, have also serially called for the top military officials to be replaced.
The Presidency had said President Muhammadu Buhari would make the decision when “the time is right.”
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