Members of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public
Petitions were on Wednesday infuriated by the refusal of the Chief of
Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, to honour the invitation of the committee.
The committee had sent invitation to Mr. Buratai to appear before a
public hearing over a petition submitted by a retired Army Lieutenant
Colonel, Abdulfatai Mohammed.
Mr. Mohammed alleged that the Army forcefully retired him in June 2016 without explanation after 22 years of service.
The public hearing started at about 3.30 p.m. with the petitioner
tendering additional evidence to the committee for consideration.
At the expiration of his speech, the chairman of the committee,
Samuel Anyanwu, called out the name of Mr. Buratai to hear the Nigerian
Army’s side of the story.
However, instead of his intended respondent, an Army officer who
introduced himself as Major Daniel from the Legal Services Department
spoke as representative of Mr. Buratai.
This incurred the fury of the lawmakers who branded Mr. Buratai as ‘disrespectful’ and ‘insulting.’
Mr. Anyanwu expressed disappointment that despite his efforts and
‘due respect’ to the Chief of Army Staff, he decided to ignore the
invitation.
“I was called last week by my clerk that the Chief of Army Staff said
I should personally sign the invitation letter before he can attend to
us and I did. I find it difficult to believe that he didn’t honour our
invitation. We also have a General as member of this committee and he
deemed it fit not to come here to listen to us.
“The last time we invited the Chief of Air Force, he was here in
person. The same thing with Navy. I respect you and your position as a
major, but tell whoever sent you that we are not going to listen to
you.”
Lending his voice, another member of the committee, Ovie Omo Agege, said that Mr. Buratai’s act was an insult to the Senate.
“If you like, you can be anything, sending you here instead of appearing is insulting. He is insulting us by this act,” he said.
Another member, Binta Garba, said that the COAS belittled the Senate
by sending “not even the head of a department but an ordinary major.
“Even if they will send someone from the legal department, it should be the head and not a major,” she said.
Mr. Anyanwu declared the public hearing closed while sending a verbal invitation to Mr. Buratai.
“Go and tell your Chief of Army Staff that this committee takes
exception to this kind of insult and would not take it. Tell him that we
didn’t attend to you and in the next sitting, we expect him to appear
in person,” he said.
UNJUST DISMISSAL
The army had in June 2016 announced the compulsory retirement of the
38 officers on different ranks on the grounds of alleged professional
misconduct during the 2015 general elections, as well as involvement in
the $2.1 billion arms procurement scandal.
However, investigations by PREMIUM TIMES revealed that
the Army breached its own rule by retiring most of the officers without
query or indictment by any panel, thereby raising question of
arbitrariness
Many of the officers, like Mr. Mohammed, had their careers abruptly
cut short for reasons that smack of high-level arbitrariness by
authorities of the Army, according to our findings.
Nothing has come of the efforts of the officers to get justice and be reinstated using several windows afforded them by law.
At least thrice, they have petitioned the Presidency. But at no time has any of them been replied.
The petition to the Senate is the latest of their efforts at seeking reinstatement.