Afenifere demands sack of Service Chiefs over killings of soldiers by Boko Haram
Afenifere, the Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, on Tuesday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to remove Service Chiefs over the killings of over 100 Nigerian soldiers by the Boko Haram terror group at Malete, Borno state.
Afenifere also demanded a probe of what happened to the funds the federal government claimed it had expended on security.
The group made the demands in a communique issued after its monthly general assembly held at the Akure home of its leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti.
Afenifere said the decision to keep them in service had killed morale in the armed forces as three sets of officers had had their careers stagnated.
“The sack of the service Chiefs should be followed with a probe of what has happened to defense allocations as we as a people cannot reconcile our extremely vulnerable troops and wailing solders in the forest with the heavy spendings the government claimed it has committed to security,” Afenifere said.
The group said the massacre of the Nigerian troops by the Boko Haram insurgents raised serious concerns about the state of the armed forces’ combat readiness in spite of the $1bn the government claimed it disbursed months back to equip the military against insurgency.
Afenifere lamented what it described as high insensitivity the federal government displayed on the matter.
It said: “First, it kept quiet for six days after the incident and when it found its voice, there were no soothing words for the bereaved families.
“It had hardly made the bland statements before descending into the gutter of political quarreling over the killings at a time a more sensitive leadership should have declared national mourning for the high casualties recorded which many countries never matched in wars that lasted for several years.
“Our hearts go to all bereaved families and officers and men of our armed forces at this grievous moment.
The group decried the continuous criminal activities of armed herdsmen in the South West, citing the recent kidnapping of six persons in Ondo state as evidence.
Afenifere warned that the country could not continue without decentralizing the police for proper security at state levels.
