Call for the removal of service chiefs rejected by presidency, blame Libya for crisis

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, says the military is doing a good job and deserves the support of Nigerians.

Talking about calls for service chiefs removal, Shehu said those criticising the President did not have the kind of information that he had as regards security and with that could not pass informed commentaries.

Shehu said the reversals in the successes recorded against Boko Haram were being undermined by the Libyan crisis which led to the rapid increase of small arms.

The President’s spokesman said this on NTA’s ‘Good Morning Nigeria’ programme on Monday while reacting to calls for the sack of service chiefs.

He said, “Our Armed Forces are doing an enormously good job, they are not sitting on their laurels but the challenges have mounted because of factors extraneous to the region and Nigerians should have an appreciation and be sympathetic and see that all of the things about the collapse of Libya is no fairytale.

“Europeans for their competing interests in Libya were dropping weapons into villages in Libya. A lot of these elements have found their way into ungoverned spaces in the Sahel. Could it be better with the sacking of the service chiefs? My sense is that the President as the commander-in-chief is not a novice in the first instance.

“He was a military commander, a military head of state and the latitude of opinions intellectual, security, military available to him is not available to most of the critics. So, it is wrong of them to interlope in a way and begin to speak on matters of which they do not have the competence to pass judgement. I hope I don’t seem arrogant but I am stating facts as they are.”