House Of Reps Fixes Date To Screen Irabor, Attahiru, Others

The Federal House of Representatives will on Wednesday screen the newly appointed service chiefs behind-closed-doors for security reasons.

This was made known to The Punch by the Chairman of the House Committee on Defence, Babajimi Benson, on Monday.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had accepted the resignation of former Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin; Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas; and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar.

He subsequently appointed Maj. Gen. Lucky Eluonye Onyenuchea lrabor – Chief of Defence Staff; Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru – Chief of Army Staff; Rear Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo – Chief of Naval Staff; and Air Vice Marshal Isiaka O. Amao – Chief of Air staff as their replacement.

Buhari in a letter dated January 27, 2021, sought the confirmation of the new service chiefs by the House of Representatives.

Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila later constituted a panel made up of chairmen, deputy chairmen and some members of the military-related standing committees, to be led by Chairman of the House Committee on Defence, Mr Babajimi Benson.

When contacted on Monday, Hon. Benson said, “It will hold on Wednesday at 10am.”

He said, “You know that for security issues, you don’t want to put information out there that the enemy will use against us. We will make some opening remarks but the main ‘question and answer’ session (would be behind closed doors).

“Nigerians should rest assure that we have moved (and adopted) several motions on insecurity and those resolutions are uppermost in our mind. We want safety and security to return to our national life. We are mindful of all that.”

It was gathered that the Senate committees responsible with oversight over the Nigerian military are also billed to conduct a closed-door, separate screening exercise this week.