‘Buratai’s coup alarm, ploy to save service chiefs from sack’
Across-section of elders under the aegis of Coalition of Nigeria Elders for Peace and Good Governance (CONEPAGG) have faulted the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen.Tukur Buratai’s statement warning officers of the Nigerian Army against embarking on a coup to change democratic government in the country.
The elders in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, said Buratai’s alarm was his imaginary thought aimed at diverting Nigerian’s attention from the failures of the service chiefs and to stop President Muhammadu Buhari from sacking them.
The statement was jointly signed by Engr. Zana Goni, National Coordinator; Prof. Adebola Adeboye, Cordinator South West; Dr Ugwuanyi Emeka, Cordinator South East; Sheik Ibrahim Mohammed Coordinator North West; Barrister Peter Shima, Cordinator North
Central; Hajiya Zainab Bulama Cordinator, North East; and Dr Solomon Dagogo Cordinator of South South.
According to them, Buratai’s warning was unnecessary since the Nigerian military has shown its allegiance not only to President Muhammadu Buhari but the entire constitutional orders in the country.
They said that his coup warning was meant to deceive the president into believing that the service chiefs were his saving grace so as to prevent any possible sack over their inabilities to secure the country against insurgents, armed bandits and kidnappers, among other adversaries.
The Chief of Army Staff, had while decorating the 39 newly promoted Major Generals, said he was aware that some generals were being approached and his eyes are on them.
He vowed that the Nigerian Army will never tolerate any agent of destabilization bent on scuttling the current democratic dispensation.
“Democracy has come to stay. We will not tolerate any agent of destabilization. The years of military misadventure in politics have never carried us anywhere. It is over,” Buratai had warned.
However, the elders urged the president to ignore the service chiefs’ antics through the army boss, tasking him to go ahead to relieve them of their positions before the country is completely overrun by adversaries.
The elders also urged the National Assembly not to pass the 2021 Budget pending before it until the president implements the resolutions of the two chambers of the legislature that demanded the sack of the security chiefs.
Army silent on elders’ remarks
When contacted yesterday for reaction, the Nigerian Army kept mum over the statement.
Several calls put across to Army’s spokesman, Brig. Gen. Sagir Musa, were not answered. He was yet to reply the text message sent to his mobile phone as at the time of filing this report late last night.