After close to 5 hours of screening, the Senate yesterday confirmed the appointments of the four service chiefs appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Following the motion by Senate Leader, Ali Ndume seeking Committee of the whole, to confirm service chiefs, he drew the attention of the lawmakers to Section 18 (1) of the Armed Forces Act to consider the request of President Buhari to confirm their appointment. “That the Senate do consider the request of Mr President, C–IN-C, for the confirmation of the following nominees for appointment as Chief of Defence Staff and Service Chief respectively”. Ndume said.
The new service chiefs are Major-General Abayomi Gabriel Olonishakin as Chief of Defence Staff; Major-General Tukur Buratai as Chief of Army Staff; Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas as Chief of Naval Staff; and Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar as the new Chief of Air Staff.
After the confirmation, the senate president Dr. Bukola Saraki,congratulated them, saying he had no doubt that the service chiefs would live up to their responsibilities. He said: “On behalf of my colleagues, I hereby congratulate the service chiefs on their confirmation as service chiefs of the Republic of Nigeria. The appointment, as we all see, is coming at a very crucial time with a lot of challenges, particularly with insurgency in North-east and some of the other security issues – for example, the issue of oil theft.
“We need to observe also that they were all born in the 60s, so there are a lot of responsibilities as new generation officers to provide new direction and new leadership to our armed forces. “We are all keen to restore the image and reputation of the armed forces. I believe that their confirmation is the beginning of the journey to restore the glory of the armed forces of our great nation. “It is very important also that we emphasize the issue of the procurement procedure in the armed forces. It is an area that they must work hard to root out corruption.”
