26 senior army officers petition NASS over compulsory retirement
Tom Okpe, Abuja
Twenty-six senior military officers, including a former major-general and 10 retired brigadier-generals have petitioned the Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, over their compulsory retirement from the army.
The petitioners, Maj. Gen. O. Ugo (Imo state); Brig. 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 and against army rules.
Despite being combatant officers, it was also revealed that about 120 direct regular officers who were mostly medical doctors, lawyers and other professionals were retired in February, 2019.
In their petition dated April 1 and signed by their lawyer, Johnson Oyewole, the officers contended that as regular combatant officers, they cannot be retired from the army based on Rule 020810 (I) which the military secretary relied on to relieve them from service.
According to their petition, they had protested their retirement via a letter dated February 20 to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Yusuf Buratai, and was followed up with a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari which were not responded to.
The retired officers explained that the army commander, under the Minister of Defense, Brig. Gen. Mansur Dan Ali (rtd), the Chief of Defense Staff, Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin and the Chief of Army Staff conveyed an emergency meeting of the council where they directed the military secretary to retire them in spite of the fact that they have not clocked 35 years in service or attained 60 years as stated in the harmonized terms and conditions of service for officers (2017) revised.
“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 harmonized terms and conditions of service for officers, 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 month’s seniority,” their lawyer argued.
The letter further disagreed that the decision of the army to retire the officers amounted to double jeopardy, having lost two years and six months seniority without obtaining the privileges of a regular commission officer, adding that “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,” asserting that they still have between two years and seven months to serve their fatherland in the and sought the intervention of the House to set aside their retirement.
