Army officers affected by the President Buhari’s ethnic cleansing in the
military have declared that the recent retirement exercise embarked upon
by the military was an act of vendetta and smacked of ethnic cleansing.
The officers said some of them served in states where the ruling All
Progressives Congress (APC) lost to the opposition Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) in the 2015 general elections.
They have vowed to challenge their retirement in court stating that
contrary to the position of the military authorities, they were not given
fair hearing as they were never invited to any board of inquiry.
The affected soldiers said they carried out their constitutional duties
and neither had any business with the 2015 general elections nor the
defence contracts noting that non of them had been invited to the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for any reason.
The group contended that some of the affected officers served as GOCs and
brigade commanders mostly from the South East and South South
geo-political zones, an area President Buhari famously said contributed 5
percent of votes during the last elections and should not expect the same
treatment as those that gave him 95 percent.
“Look at the list of those retired. These are brigade commanders, GOCs
and commanding officers, who served in all the states lost by the APC to
PDP. What is our offence? Would we have forced the people to vote for
candidates other than their choice?
“Thank God, this is democracy and we have a right to be heard. They have
done their bit but many of us have decided, we are going to fight this
injustice in court.
“Some people cannot just arrogate power to themselves and ruin the careers
of other persons who have given their all to the nation,” some of the
victims said.
Speaking in Abuja, Defence Minister, Mansur Mohammed Dan Ali, said “there
is political will under the Buhari administration to transform the armed
forces.
“Of recent, most of the functions of the police had been taken over by the
military. But we cannot just go and take away the armed forces from the
streets. It has to be a gradual process. “2015 election duties were not
our responsibility. Our duties were only to support the police. The
military was involved in too much professional corruption by way of
partisanship. We were not to be seen near polling stations”, he said.