The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has congratulated the newly appointed COAS, General Farouk Yahaya by President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a statement, signed by its Secretary General Mazi Okechukwu Isigwuzoro, the Igbo Apex socio cultural group urges the new army chief to sustain legacies of his predicessor who died in air crash.
In his words: ” The new COAS must sustain the legacies of late Ibrahim Attahiru and dismantle the cabal sabotaging the fight against insurgents and bandits through recycling of insurgency for exclusive embezzlement of budgetary allocation on security”, which had made the war against the insurgency futile.
Ohanaeze however lamented about untimely retirement of 40 Military Generals Army based on the endless violation of tenets of federal character, “imagine incredibly exodus of senior and more experienced military officers retiring from the army because of their junior who was appointed COAS, in a country permeated with insecurity. Mr. President had forced over 40 Generals from 35 Regular Course and 36th Regular Course to retirement because of their junior from 37th Regular Course was appointed COAS.
“Ndigbo never lobbied for the position of COAS as it was predictable the direction President heading towards favoring the North without modification of the imbalance in the appointments of members of the National Security Council which is sectional and stimulates secessionist campaigns in the Middlebelt and Southern Nigeria.
“Our expectation of the newly appointed COAS is to provide new techniques to end the conflict ravaging Northern Nigeria and spreading now to the South, he should place professionalism above other considerations and ensure that officers are upgraded with modern technology and training, there should be deviations from the sordid era of brutality against unarmed agitators when armed bandits and Boko Haram are pampered and are reintegrated into the Army.”, the statement said.