Kingsley Nwezeh writes that the appointment of new service chiefs has renewed hopes for a renewed onslaught against insurgents, bandits and other criminal gangs whose despicable activities have shot issues of insecurity into a national emergency
With the appointment of new service chiefs last week by President Muhammadu Buhari, all eyes are now on the new military helmsmen to deliver where their predecessors failed.
The appointment of the new service chiefs, notably, Major General Lucky Irabor, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Major General Ibrahim Attahiru, Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Vice Marshal Oladayo Amao and Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), Rear Admiral Zubairu Gambo, was a culmination of strident calls by stakeholders for a change of strategy in a conflict, particularly against Boko Haram insurgents that has become a war of attrition.
Seventy years next Wednesday, February 3, life has been kind to a former National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party and later, Chairman of the National Identity Management Company, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who spent his productive years serving his fatherland in the Nigerian Army. Yinka Kolawole writes
One of the very few people in this country, who have been fortunate to rule two states at different times, is Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a prince of Okuku, Osun State. He was a Military Administrator of Lagos State from December 1993 to August 1996.
Nine years after leaving Lagos, he was sworn in as the elected governor of Osun State on May 29, 2003 and remained on the seat till November 26, 2010. He later became the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party and later, Chairman of the National Identity Management Company (NIMC).
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Lucky Irabor, Chief of Defence Staff – How Borno indigene foretold his elevation in 2016
In 2016, Ibrahim Uba Yusuf, an indigene of Borno was so impressed with new Chief of Defence Staff Lucky Irabor that he declared him his man of the year in a local publication in Maiduguri.
Before then, the entire Sambisa Forest had fallen to Gboko Haram but Irabor led the operations that recovered greater part of the forest. Yusuf celebrated Irabor this way: “The year 2016 is remarkable to not only the people of Borno or North East but also the whole of Nigeria because of the fall of camp and hideout of the Boko Haram leader Shekau in Sambisa.
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No fewer than 20 members of courses 34 and 35 may proceed on retirement as the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Tuesday removed service chiefs and appointed a new set of officers to replace them.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in a statement titled, ‘President Buhari appoints new service chiefs,’ named officers who would head the nation’s armed forces.
According to him, they include Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General Lucky Irabor; Chief of Army Staff, Major-General I. Attahiru; Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral A.Z Gambo, and the Chief of Air Staff, Air-Vice Marshal Isiaka Amao.
•Changes made to inject fresh ideas into system, says presidency
•National Assembly, Afenifere, ACF, others welcome new appointments
By Deji Elumoye, Chuks Okocha, Kingsley Nwezeh, Onyebuchi Ezigbo, Adedayo Akinwale, Udora Orizu in Abuja, Seriki Adinoyi in Jos, John Shiklam in Kaduna, George Okoh in Makurdi
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday injected fresh vigour into efforts by his administration to combat insurgency, banditry and other forms of criminality with the appointment of new service chiefs.
Buhari’s media adviser, Mr. Femi Adesina, in a statement that announced the appointments, named tested insurgency war general, Maj. Gen. Lucky Irabor as the new Chief of Defence Staff (CDS); Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru as Chief of Army Staff; Rear Admiral Awwal Gambo as the Chief of Naval Staff; while Air-Vice Marshal Isiaka Amao emerged the Chief of Air Staff.