Presidency: No Service Chief Sacked, CDS Retiring

The Presidency has de­nied the newspaper report that President Muhammadu Buhari had fired the Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olo­nisakin and Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas.
Presidential Spokesman, Femi Adesina, issued a state­ment yesterday lamenting that the newspaper did not confirm the story before rushing to publish a report that is not completely true and which borders on mis­chief.

According to Adesina, “Gen Olonisakin is due to retire from the Army next week, having satisfied the of­ficial number of years in ser­vice. He is yet to be replaced.
“But the Chief of Naval Staff has a short while more, and President Buhari could, therefore, not have approved his replacement yet.”
The full statement reads: “It is necessary to respond to a fictive story published in today’s edition of New Tele­graph Newspaper to the ef­fect that President Muham­madu Buhari has approved the replacement of Chief of Defence Staff, General Ga­briel Olonisakin, and Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, as Ser­vice Chiefs.
“The newspaper, rather than rush to print an unsub­stantiated story, would have done better to confirm the information at its disposal, from many available mili­tary and government infor­mation channels.
“It then would have avoid­ed the self-inflicted wound of publishing a one-legged story that is not completely true, and damaging its brand in the process.
“Gen Olonisakin is due to retire from the Army next week, having satisfied the of­ficial number of years in ser­vice. He is yet to be replaced. But the Chief of Naval Staff has a short while more, and President Buhari could, therefore, not have approved his replacement yet.
“This administration has repeatedly pledged commit­ment to transparency and accountability and one of the hallmarks of that is making information available to the media.