Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Azubuike Ihejirika has blamed former Infantry Commander in Jaji, Major general Muhammad Isa rtd for not acting to prevent last year’s attacks on the cantonment despite being aware of the plot since a day before the incident.
According to Ihejirika, Army authorities have received the report of the investigation into the attacks, and it showed that General Isa got the information about the planned attack one day before it, yet he did not give instructions to subordinates to take action.
“When I met him at Chief of Army Conference in Asaba, I asked him, ‘Why are you here when your house is on fire?’ He did not say anything. The GoC 1 Division received same intelligence report and stayed in Kaduna.”
Iherijika, who was speaking at a press conference, warned that the motive behind recent campaigns against the Nigerian Army is to destabilise it, weaken its cohesion and cause chaos in the country. He said “investigations are still ongoing” to ascertain the extent of Major General Isa’s negligence.
He also spoke on recent allegations of lopsided recruitment, promotion, retirement and deployment of senior officers in the Army, saying they are baseless and mere falsehood.
“It is a great disservice to the nation for anyone to choose through deliberate falsehood to link the routine activities of promotions and postings in the Nigerian Army with ethno religious considerations,” he said.
He argued that if the faceless groups feeding the public with misleading information had no ulterior motives, they would have sought to air their grievances through official channels of communication.
“The types of allegations being peddled around are similar with the tactic of terrorists.
“Every nation has its own frontline institutions that terrorists want to undermine, but the Nigerian Army is still intact and would not succumb to such threats. It is just unfortunate that some certain retired officers and serving senior military officers who missed promotion are feeding the public with falsehood.
He recalled that he once missed promotion in 1998 from the rank of Lt. Colonel to Colonel and he never castigated the Army.
“Some other notable retired Chief of Army Staffs, like General Malu, late General Luka Yusuf and several others also missed their promotions and never reported their cases to the civilians.
“It is obvious that the officers who are complaining in the public about promotion did not want to serve the country. In any case, I will not work with disloyal officers. I assure you that the Nigerian Army of today is not the type of Army that ran the country into war in 1960s.”
General Ihejirika disclosed that it is on record that three Brigadiers-General from Kano State were elevated to the rank of Major General on merit in 2011.
He added that General Osinowo that was cited as being edged out was promoted under his watch and later became GOC 82 Division, saying all retirements of senior officers are always approved by the Army Council.
