Why we were retired, army officers speak

“Obviously, the new military establishment came with the mindset of doing away with any officer who  worked closely with the former leadership of the service,” said an army officer, who was one of the 38 recently relieved by the Nigerian Army high command. “That’s why we were portrayed as villains in the eye of the press and the world at large, and surreptitiously removed from the system. This is rather unfortunate. We are not saying we are all saints; however, I feel we are not that bad. Of course, we are all humans who are bound to make infractions here and there. But, honestly speaking, the way and manner we were humiliated out of the army calls for reflection on how things are done in this part of the world, considering  our contributions to the survival of this country in the last few years,” the officer, who does not want his name in print,  added.

A document obtained by Daily Trust on Sunday showed that the officers were compulsorily retired based on provisions of chapter 9, section 09.02 (a) of the Conditions of Service of the Army, which states that, “An officer may, at any time, be removed from the service, be called upon to retire or resign his commission on disciplinary ground.”
 But one of those affected said most of them were now exploring the provision of section 09.02 (e) which states that, “An officer called upon to retire, resign or relinquish his commission shall, if he so desire, appeal to Mr President, the Commander-in-Chief, through the Chief of Defence Staff within 30 days to have his case considered.”

According to him, “I am not due for retirement. An average officer is always loyal to the government and the military establishment. And when any of them change, your loyalty must change automatically. However, as far as the new authority is concerned, every officer who worked under the previous system is disgruntled.”
Up till date, the actual comprehensive list of the officers who were abruptly discharged has not been officially released by the military authorities, a situation that keeps generating curiosity.
Also, their actual ‘crime’ and the procedure used in determining their level of complacency have remained a matter of conjuncture. On the surface, the media have been told that the crimes were related to issues bordering on political partisanship, money laundering and corruption, among other offences.
On Thursday, June 9, 2016, the Nigerian Army Council, chaired by the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-General Tukur Buratai, held a meeting that began about 9:00pm and lasted till the early hours of Friday.
Much later in the day, what transpired in the meeting (compulsory retirement), began to leak out to some of the officers affected.
The first ‘list’, which had the names of over 50 officers who were alleged to be close to senior officers in the past government, was later found to be untrue.
Late at night on Friday, while journalists were curiously trying to find out the names and reasons of the retirement, the acting director, Army Public Relations, Col Sani Kukasheka Usman, issued a statement about 10.30pm.
“Their retirement was based on service exigencies. It should be recalled that not too long ago some officers were investigated for being partisan during the 2015 general elections. Similarly, the investigation by the presidential committee investigating defence contracts revealed a lot. Some officers have already been arraigned in court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).  People should, therefore, not read this out of context.
“We are quite aware that some mischievous elements are trying to whip up sentiments. This is quite unfortunate because all the affected officers were retired based on service exigencies and in line with the Armed Forces Act, CAP A20 laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004,” he stated in a press statement.
But the press release did not contain names of the actual officers affected by the exercise. Somehow, the names of the 38 officers were put together by sources close to them. The names included Major-Generals F. O. Alli; Atewe, I. N. Ijoma; TC Ude; Letam Wiwa; SD Aliyu; M.Y Ibrahim; LC Ilo and O. Ejemai.
These were followed by Brigadier-Generals D. M. Onoyeveta; A. S. O. Mormoni Bashir; A.S.H Sa’ad; A. I. Onibasa; D. Abdusalam; L.M. Bello; KA Essien; B. A. Fiboinumama and I. M. Lawson.
Others are Colonels I. O. Ahhachi; P. E. Ekpeyong; T. T. Minimah; O. U. Nwankwo and F. D. Kayode.
Lieutenant-Colonels C. O. Amadi; K. O. Adimogha; T. E. Arigbe; O. A. Baba Ochankpa; D. B. Dazang; O. C. Egemole Enemchukwu; A. Mohammed; A. S. Mohammed; G. C. Nyekwu; T. O. Oladintoye; C. K. Ukoha were also on the list. The last one is Major A. T. Williams.
Findings reveal that among them were two General Officers Commanding (GOCs) and some brigade commanders, whose alleged crimes revolved around allowances of the rank and files under them. Others were defence advisers for some Anglophone countries, and attaches for some Francophone countries, who were posted at the twilight of the tenure of the last service chiefs, with a mandate to stay in their countries of assignment for at least two years and a maximum of three years.
It was gathered that some of those retired were indicted by the Investigative Committee on the Procurement of Hardware and Munitions in the Armed Forces, from 2007, headed by retired AVM J.O.N. Ode, which was convened in August, 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari.
However, not much was heard from the affected officers, who were reportedly taken unawares. Most of them prefer to remain quiet owing to their oath of military calling.
That notwithstanding, our correspondent was able to speak with quite a number of them. Some others spoke through their families.
“There was nothing like fair hearing before we were sacked. I was driving when an insider broke the shocking story to me. It was two days after that I got my letter, which did not precisely state the actual crime I committed,” a lieutenant-colonel said.
When reminded that he was only compulsorily retired and not sacked, he said, “What are you talking about? What they did to us is as good as saying ‘go, your services are no longer needed.’ This is a serious indictment, even in the core civil service.”
 Another officer said that based on his findings, he was told to go because of his closeness to some people in the office of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki.
“I gathered that they checked my call log and found out that I was communicating with someone in the office of the NSA. I never participated in election duty or arms procurement as they alleged.  I was never invited to give my own side of the story, but I received the retirement letter,” he said.
Some of the officers who were sacked worked in the Niger Delta region and the volatile North-East zone.
According to some of them, they were accused of being ‘too close’ to previous service chiefs and worked in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the 2015 general elections.
“The name of my friend was only mentioned during the meeting of the Army Council. Someone said he chased some women to go back home and change while on their way to vote, allegedly for the All Progressives Congress (APC). However, the actual truth is that he was not comfortable with their pattern of dressing, which could cause tension at the polling centre in one of the north-western states,” he said.
Another officer said, “I wasn’t a commanding officer at any point in time in the Niger Delta. They said I took part in the Rivers elections by monitoring the process with an unmanned area vehicle.
“Even if the authorities wanted to sack us, we deserve fair hearing. But there was nothing like that. We only heard of spurious allegations, including closeness to politicians.
“But we didn’t force ourselves on the politicians. We were posted officially to work with them. My fear is that if every new administration will retire the officers that worked with the previous one, we may one day end up without officers.
“But one thing Nigerians were not told is that we were sacked because we know so much on military operations, intelligence, as well as strength and weaknesses of the new order.
“What happened to us is akin to what happened during the first coming of Obasanjo as president tenure 1999. The only difference is that while Obasanjo retired many officers because they were politically exposed, to me, Buhari, in his second coming as civilian president, removed us because we were exposed to many security challenges in the North and South,” he said.
Our correspondent gathered that most of the retired officers were authorities in their areas of specialisation, with vast training on arms procurement, servicing and handling, intelligence gathering, field and tactical operations.
“Billions of naira has been spent on almost all of them in the last 10 years in order to get the best training in the United States, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Russia, India, Bagladash and many Asian countries.
“It is good to purge the military if there are genuine reasons, but sometimes, the implication is that it will take you more than 10 years and a lot of money to replace them. This means that there will be a wallowing gap, especially now that Nigeria is facing wars in various fronts,” said a security expert, retired Major Salihu Bakari.
“As far as I am concerned, we were sacrificed to settle old scores. The offences the Army Council stated against me were unfounded; and I was never given fair hearing. At worst, when you allege, the suspect needs to be called upon to clear the grey areas,” one of the affected brigadier-generals said.
Daily Trust on Sunday gathered from sources that those compulsorily retired so far were given a “soft landing” as many more would have to face military court- martial and may end up in jail.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Defence Mansur Dan-Ali, while fielding questions from journalists at the National Defence College (NDC) on Monday, June 13, in Abuja, said the retired officers were those indicted in one way or another on both professional and monetary corruption.
“If you are partisan you are professionally corrupt and you will be asked to go. That is exactly what happened,’’ he explained.
Asked if they were given fair hearing, he said: “Of course they were given fair hearing. They were called by a board and they went and testified. Don’t forget that in the military there is no half way of doing things; the moment you are found wanting you have to succumb and go.”