A rights group, the Int’l Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law has called on the eastern Nigeria governors, elected national and states’ legislators to rise to their constitutional powers against gross lopsidedness leadership in Nigeria military and other formations.
The Intersociety disclosed this in an eight-page letter to the public office holders for purpose of conveying this strong message, signed by Emeka Umeagbalasi and others made available to newsmen in Awka on Thursday.
“It is tearful and shocking, for instance, that out of 26 top military officers recently found to be manning key military formations in the Southeast, none of them is from the Region.
“This is nothing short of a serious security threat to the people of the Southeast including their boundaries, properties and environment; especially in a country where ethnicity, religion and greed have been elevated as national policy direction and inculcated into the country’s milito-policing culture and operations.
“The Eastern Nigeria’s elected public office holders must therefore specifically insist on regional inputs in the appointment and posting of top military and policing officers manning key military and policing formations in the two regions.
“We call on them to further take the matter up with Mr. President upon his return from the 2019 UNGA as well as proactively engage the authorities of Defense Headquarters, Army, Navy, Air Force, SSS and NPF,’’ it stated.
It added that the special letter was directly sent to the eleven Eastern governors, 285 elected members of the Eastern Houses of Assembly through their Hon Speakers.
Other recipients included the 33 elected Senators and the 98 elected members of House of Rep from the two regions through their Minority and Caucus leaders; totaling 427.
It noted that the authorities of the Police Service Commission and the Nigeria Police Force have refused and failed to immediately fill the Southeast vacancy in the Nigeria Police Management Team by way of elevation of an Igbo senior police officer to the rank of DIG.
“The vacancy has deliberately been allowed to linger since 12th August 2019 or past 44 days. The reverse must therefore be ensured by the named elected public officers of the Southeast. This must be done as a matter of uttermost immediacy and inexcusability,’’ it stated.
It added that the elected leaders of the Southeast must also prevail on the authorities of the PSC and NPF to ensure sectional balancing at all times in the appointment or promotion of Police AIGs, CPs, DCPs and ACPs.
“And be particularly compelled to ensure that out of 26 serving AIGs in the country, Southeast gets at least four; fifteen out of 95 serving CPs, six out of 36 State CPs and two out of 12 Zonal AIGs. The Southeast must further be made a meritorious and substantive member of the Nigerian Defense and Security Councils, denied since June 2015.
“The continued domination, command and control of top military and policing formations in Eastern Nigeria by officers of Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba nationalities and their Islamic faith and total shutting out from the regional security arrangement or skeletal involvement of officers of the Southeast and the South-south must no longer be tolerated or accepted.
“As a matter of fact, security in the midst of official insecurity such as the referenced is an act of impossibility and a wild goose chase.
“This is more so when it has conservatively been found that not less than N250b or $850m had been spent by the eleven Eastern Nigerian States through their “Governors’ monthly security,’’ it noted.