Monday, January 20, 2014

Boko Haram Insurgency Will Be Crushed By April – new CDS

 


The newly appointed Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Marshal Alexander Sabundu Badeh, has declared that the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeastern part of the country will be crushed by April.
Badeh made the declaration on Monday shortly after he took the baton from Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim as CDS. He said, “The security situation in the northeast must be brought to a complete stop before April 2014.
Substantial progress has been recorded in the war against the insurgents. “We must bring it (insurgency) to a stop before April so that we will not have constitutional problems on our hands.”
It was a flurry of activities as new Service Chiefs took over from their predecessors in colourful ceremonies that ushered in the new helmsmen.
Admiral Ola Ibrahim handed over to Air Marshal Badeh who was elevated from Chief of the Air Staff to the CDS. Earlier, Badeh had handed over to Air Vice Admiral Adesola Amosu as the new Chief of the Air Staff.
The erstwhile Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, handed over to Major Gen. Kenneth Minimah, who becomes the new COAS. Ihejirika, had, in the course of the exercise dismissed media reports that over 30 senior officers were forced into retirement to pave the way for Minimah.
According to him, there were only five officers who were senior to Minimah and that most of them had submitted their retirement letters to him since last week.
He said: “I also want to remark that some papers published recently that 31 Army Generals might be leaving because of their relative seniority to the new Army Chief. “It is a fact that only five officers ranked higher in seniority than the new Army Chief up to the time he was appointed.
And I want to inform you that most of these officers; the five I am talking about have submitted their letters of voluntary retirement to me because they feel they should retire at this point in time to make the work of the Army Chief very easy.”
At the Navy, Rear Admiral Usman Jibrin took over from Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba as new Chief of Naval Staff. All the retiring Service Chiefs expressed gratitude to President Goodluck Jonathan for giving them the opportunity to serve in various capacities.
They enjoined serving officers and men to give the new Service Chiefs their unflinching support and loyalty to the nation.

No comments:

Post a Comment