…Airforce chief prepares to bomb army formations
With the massive expose that visited plans by Hausa-Fulani officers in the
Nigerian military to violently overthrow the constitutional, democratic
order in order to prevent Acting President Yomi Osinbajo from taking over
full reigns of power in the event of President Mohammadu Buhari’s death,
the coupists have moved to plan B.
Chief of Army Staff, Yusuf Buratai, had raised alarm to the effect that
some officers were conducting nocturnal meetings with politicians with a
view to overthrowing the government of the day.
The army later launched an investigation and claimed to have made some
arrests.
Pointblanknews.com had reported that the putschists had planned to arrest
the Acting President and the National Leader of the ruling All
Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu and accuse them of
poisoning President Buhari.
Tinubu recently reacted to the coup plot by stating that democrats who
sacrificed so much to ensure the enthronement of democratic rule would not
buy undemocratic change of government. He said Lagosians would resist
such an attempt.
But Pointblanknews.com has learned that the coup planners are not letting
up, having moved to plan B.
With the deployment of new commanding officers in the various army
formations by the COAS, Yusuf Buaratai, as a strategy to neutralise the
plot, the planners, who are mainly Hausa-Fulani officers bent on ensuring
that the North-west geo-political zone and some parts of North-east zone
retain power at all cost should President Buhari exit the stage, have
enlisted the Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar.
Pointblanknews.com Investigations have revealed that since new officers
loyal to the army chief are now in place (GOCs, Brigade commanders)
reducing significantly the chances of the successful coup d’état, the
planners have opted to use the airforce chief, who is a Hausa-Fulani
officer and also part of the general plan.
When the plot is activated, fighter aircraft and helicopter gunships
recently procured for the fight against Boko Haram insurgents are to be
deployed to bombard army formations opposed to the move.
“The reason to be adduced by the airforce chief is that some elements had
planned to overthrow the government but the airforce is intervening as
part of their patriotic duty.
“The chief of army staff is also a major target of the planned bombing by
the air force as he is considered a major obstacle to the plot”, an
impeccable military source told Pointblanknews.com.
As a confirmation of this story, the Chief of Air Staff, Sadique Abubakar,
in the last 24 hours issued a statement claiming the airforce had
discovered plans by Boko Haram to bomb airforce bases across the country.
In an obvious move to create a distraction, the airforce chief said:
“As a matter of fact, we have had an attack on one of our airbases in the
recent past, and current intelligence reports keep highlighting the
possibility of attacks on our bases.
“Given the importance of bases in the airpower delivery matrix, it is not
inconceivable to expect our adversaries to target our bases.
“All these reinforce the need to emplace a robust base defence concept
that is capable of providing guidance for responding to a wide range of
situations that may threaten our bases,” the CAS said in a statement by
the Director of Information and Public Relations (DOPRI), Air Commodore
Olatokunbo Adesanya”.
Further checks showed that the plan to “emplace a robust air base defence”
is actually a decoy to bombard army formations as part of the coup plot.
The air force chief had last week pledged the loyalty of the airforce to
the constitution in another move to divert attention and exonerate him
from any complicity with coupists.