Northern elders want ‘our Igbo brothers’ included in service chiefs’ appointment

A GROUP comprising mainly elders of northern extraction, identified as Coalition of Northern Elders for Peace and Development, has appealed to President Buhari to review the appointment of the new service chiefs to “reflect the nation’s federal character principle, fairness and equity.”

The group said this in a statement issued by  its National Coordinator, Zana Goni on Thursday.

The CNEPD said, “We completely throw our weight behind Ohanaeze Ndigbo on their position over the appointments of the new service chiefs. We vehemently appeal to Mr President for a review of the appointments to accommodate our Igbo brothers from the South-East region in line with the federal character principle of the country.

“We are absolutely sure that taking this action will make the designers of our country happy where they are watching. We received with great excitement the news about the sacking of the former service chiefs of the country by Mr President. It is quite commendable that the president finally listened to the clarion call by Nigerians to that effect.

“However, the composition of the service chiefs greeted us with mixed feelings and sincere concerns. We strongly believe that the list does not meet a fair list as it is lacking in fairness, justice, and equity to the South-Easterners.”

“We thought some lessons would have been learnt by the Presidency by now that the Igbos are also Nigerians and deserve to be fairly and godly treated.

“How can there be the appointment of two sets of service chiefs without any Igbo person among them? Is this fair? What exactly has the Igbo people done to deserve this kind of unfair treatment?

“Our careful checks revealed that Igbos have senior and very qualified military officers in the Navy, Army, and Airforce who are serving faithfully in their various capacities. What is their sin?

“We appeal to Mr President to have a retrospection over this latest appointments and do the needful because we feel that if it is not addressed soon, people like Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB will continually make supporters of APC and your admirers from the South-East region laughing stock of your administration.”