Senate Announces Wednesday, Oct 29 as Screening Day For Newly Appointed Service Chiefs
By: Israel Adeleke
OPEN TELEVISION NAIJA (OTN) News reports as gathered that the amid different controversies surrounding the bold step the president of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, took, the senate has brought forward the screening of newly appointed service chiefs by the president to Wednesday, October 29, reversing its earlier decision to conduct the exercise next week.
OTN News further reports as gathered that the announcement came shortly after Senate President, Godwill Akpabio, read a separate correspondence from the president, seeking the confirmation of appointment of Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede.
According to the Senate president, the change was necessary to enable the military chiefs to assume their duties immediately.
Akpabio elucidated that the president had urged the Senate to give expeditious consideration to the confirmation process to ensure continuity and effective coordination of the nation’s security architecture.
Following the new schedule, the Committee of the Whole is expected to conduct the screening exercise during plenary on Wednesday.
OTN News had earlier reported that, Tinubu reshuffled the military hierarchy, removing General Christopher Musa, with Oluyede (a former Chief of Army Staff) replacing him as the Chief of Defence Staff.
He, however, retained Major-General E.A.P. Undiendeye as the Chief of Defence Intelligence.
The rejigging, according to presidential aide Sunday Dare, was due to “the efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria to strengthen the national security architecture”.
“All appointments take immediate effect,” he wrote.
However, critics have faulted the rejig of the military hierarchy, with the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) asking President Tinubu to come out clean on the reason for the move.
“Our position remains, therefore, that the Federal Government owes Nigerians a categorical explanation about what truly happened,” the ADC wrote in a statement by its spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi.
“As an opposition political party, our interest remains the stability of our country and our democracy. In the light of developments in our neighbourhood of Chad and the Sahel States, we are gravely concerned," OTN News recalls as the statement was reported.
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