Unic Press UK: A foremost Yoruba cultural group, Afenifere has called for the sack of Nigerian service chiefs as opprobrium mounts over the failings of the Nigerian government, and people mourn the killing of more than a 100 soldiers by Boko Haram, a deadly terrorist group at the 157 Task Force Battalion Defensive Location, Metele, Borno State of Nigeria.
In a communiqué read after a meeting of the group in Akure – the capital city of Ondo State – the Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin said that the organization was “devastated by the killings of over 100 Nigerian soldiers in Melete a week ago by the dreaded Boko Haram terror group.” He added that:
“The massacre of our ill-equipped troops by the evil sect raises serious concerns about the state of our armed forces to combat readiness in spite of the unappropriated $1 billion the government claimed it disbursed months back to equip our military against insurgency. Afenifere demands as a first step the immediate removal of the Service Chiefs who are already in their retirement years but are still kept in service by the President in what many have interpreted as partisan needs as we move towards the next elections. Their illegal stay, in spite of not being effective, has equally killed morale in the armed forces as three sets of officers have now had their careers stagnated. The sack of the Service Chiefs should be followed with a probe of what has happened to defence allocations as we as a people cannot reconcile our extremely vulnerable troops and wailing soldiers in the forest with the heavy spendings the government claimed it has committed to security.”
In a related news, the lower house of the Nigerian legislative body, the House of Representatives agreed Tuesday during a plenary session to investigate the $1 billion (₦362 billion) appropriated a few months ago for the procurement of military equipment needed to effectively wage war against the Boko Haram terrorist group. The lawmakers are also demanding that the military authorities make public the names of all the soldiers that were killed during the recent attack at at the 157 Task Force Battalion Defensive Location, Metele, Borno State of Nigeria.
