Chief of Army Staff: Buhari Has No Regards For Constitutional Oaths - HURIWA

Posted by Thandiubani on Thu 27th May, 2021 - tori.ng

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has been called out for appointing Major General Farouk Yahaya as new Chief of Army Staff.

Muhammadu Buhari

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigerian, HURIWA has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of working against the Nigerian constitution after he appointed Major General Farouk Yahaya as the new Chief of Army Staff, COAS.

The President had appointed Yahaya as the new COAS following the death of Ibrahim Attahiru in a plane crash in Kaduna last week Friday.

Yahaya’s appointment was made public on Thursday in a statement by the Defence Headquarters.

In a reaction to the development, HURIWA accused the President of maintaining an unconstitutional practice of posting only Northern Hausa/Fulani Muslims to head the entire Internal Security architecture since 2015.

The group reeled out the positions to include the Nigerian Customs Service, Nigerian Immigration Service, Nigerian Police Force, Department of State Services, National Intelligence Agency and the Nigerian Army, the largest group of the Nigerian armed forces.

HURIWA described the ‘shameless nepotistic decision’ of President Buhari to continue in the illegal and unconstitutional abuses of appointing only Hausa/Fulani citizens into juicy Internal Security positions in breach of the Nigerian Constitutional provision of Federal Character as despicable, reprehensible and totally toxic.

The Human rights group also blamed the stooges controlling the National Assembly, the Senate President and The Speaker for indulging President Muhammadu Buhari in his serial offences against the Nation’s Grundnorm.

HURIWA further noted that the Country had the fortune of having strong and independent persons as heads of the National legislative Chambers, then these serial abuses of the Constitution by President Muhammadu Buhari would have merited his impeachment from office.

“HURIWA observed that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria section 14 (3)indicated: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few States or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.”

“President Muhammadu Buhari has violated his constitutional oath of office by his nepotism as shown clearly by his aversion for respecting the Federal Character principle even when the President swore an Oath of office.

“Furthermore, the President’s refusal to appoint an officer from the South East of Nigeria as the Army Chief of Staff even when he is the most senior of the Major Generals further solidify his notoriety as someone who does not believe in one Nigeria,” the statement said.