The Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, has disagreed with the National Assembly’s call for sack of the country’s head of security agencies saying tha
The Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, has disagreed with the National Assembly’s call for sack of the country’s head of security agencies saying that what they rather need is funding to fight the war against insurgency successfully. The governor argued that the present service chiefs are committed to defending the territorial integrity of the country.
The National Assembly had passed a resolution recently calling on President Mohammadu Buhari to sack the service chiefs for non-performance. They cited rising cases of insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other acts of criminality across the country for their reasons for the call.
Speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony of Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Umahi opposed the National Assembly’s call.
“I want to disagree with the National Assembly in my own view about the change of service chiefs. One thing I have realised is that we like change too much in this country. We want everybody to taste every seat,” he said.
“That is not what we need at this critical time of our security challenges. What we need is cooperation with the security agencies. Without undermining the former inspectors general, this Inspector General is a very different human being. He is a very stubborn man but stubborn to the policies and law of the land. And that is the person this country needs. The Chief of Army staff is also a very committed person. Very friendly to the civil society,” the governor said.
Mr Umahi said what the service chiefs require at the moment is more information from the populace and increased funding and logistics support from the government. He said sacking the service chiefs now may derail the fight against insurgency and criminality as their successors may take some time learning the ropes.
“So I will be suggesting to Mr President in support of his retaining the service chiefs that we should increase their funding of the armed forces, we should increase their logistics, we should increase the programme that will bring information to the security agencies. I support Mr President that instead of changing the service chiefs to rather increase their funding and increase the frequency of his meetings with them. And also encourage civil society to come up with information that will assist the security agencies.”
