The Minister of Defence, Major General Salihi Magashi (Retd), has insisted that the appointment of Major General Farouk Yahaya as the Chief of Army Staff by President Muhammadu Buhari was based on national interest and not on ethnic and religious sentiments.
President Buhari on Thursday, May 28, announced the appointment of Yahaya as the new Army chief to take over from Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, who died in a plane crash on Friday May 21.
Yahaya is from Zamfara State and a member of the 35 Regular Course of the Nigerian Defence Academy.
The Minister in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mohammad Abdulkadri, described the new Army Chief as “an organic infantry General who is tested and trusted to actualise the national aspirations to restore peace in the dark spots areas of insurgency, kidnapping and banditry as well as other allied threats to the nation’s corporate existence.”
The minister lauded President Buhari for what he called “the well thought out strategic appointment of Major General Farouk Yahaya, the 22nd Chief of Army Staff as a replacement for the late Lt Gen Ibrahim Attahiru who died in a plane crash alongside ten others last Friday in Kaduna.”
He said further that with the appointment of General Yahaya, President Buhari has expediently put national interest above ethnic and religious chauvinism by fulfilling all requirements necessary.
“These include his unblemished track records of service, Professional, Command and Operational competences among other yardsticks that culminated into his emergence as most suitably qualified new Army boss.
Magashi expressed optimism in the professional pedigree of the former theatre Commander Operation “Hadin Kai” to sustain the trajectory of taking offensive and aggressive campaigns to the camps, corridors and cells of the adversaries with a view to obliterating them.
He pledged the support of the Ministry of Defence under his watch to the new Army boss in carrying out his mandate.
He also announced that plans are in the pipeline by the Federal Government to immortalise the late General Attahiru and others who died in the plane crash.
