Not fewer than 26 senior military officers, including a former Major-General and 10 retired Brigadiers-General, have petitioned the Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, over their compulsory retirement from the Nigerian Army.
In their petition dated April 1, 2019, by their lawyer, Johnson Oyewole, the officers are contending that as Regular Combatant Officers, they cannot be retired from the army based on Rule 020810 (I) which the Military Secretary relied on to sack them from service.
The petitioners are Maj. Gen. O. Ugo (Imo State); Brigs. Gen. J. Chima (Imo), J. Ebong (Akwa Ibom), P. Aro (Ondo); M. Odediran (Osun); A. Busari (Oyo); E. Albara (Niger); J. Audu (Kogi); O. Falade (Osun) and G. Shipi (Plateau) and others, argued that their retirement was unlawful.
They insisted that they still have between two and seven years to serve in the army and sought the intervention of the House to set aside their retirement.
Apart from the petitioners, who were Regular Combatant Officers, about 120 Direct Regular Officers who were mostly medical doctors, lawyers and other professionals were also said to have gotten retirement letters in February, 2019.
According to the petitioners, they had protested the development via a letter dated February 20, 2019 to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Yusuf Buratai, adding that this was followed up with a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, which were not responded to.
The former military officers explained that the Nigerian Army Council, NAC, under the Minister of Defence, Brig. Gen. Mansur Dan Ali (retd), the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin, and the CAS conveyed an emergency meeting of the Council, where they directed the Military Secretary to retire them despite the fact that they had not clocked 35 years in service or attained 60 years as stated in the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service for Officers (2017) revised.
The petition reads; “We further state that our clients have converted and lost two years and six months of service to properly align them with the officers holding Regular Combatant Commission.
“According to HTACOS, from the date of their conversion, they ceased to have Short Service Combatant Commission type of commission.
This was the purpose of conversion and losing two years, six months seniority. “A cursory look at the list (of retired officers) revealed that 17 of them are from the Southern part of the country while the rest are from the North.
Our clients were not investigated for any infraction, indicted by a Court Martial or convicted by a disciplinary panel for any criminal breaches.”
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