Barely 48 hours after the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Ibrahim Attahiru, and 10 other military officers died in an ill-fated military aircraft, which crashed in Kaduna on Friday, some generals in the Army have begun to jostle to replace the late Army chief.
The COAS and the other officers that died along with him in the plane crash were buried only on Saturday.
But a few hours after their burial, speculations became rife that President Muhammadu Buhari had already appointed the General Officer Commanding 1 Division Nigerian Army, Kaduna, Maj-Gen Danjuma Ali-Keffi, as the acting Chief of Army Staff.
FirstNews investigations, however, revealed that despite Alli-Keffi’s current position as the GOC 1 Division, he is far junior in rank and in the hierarchy of the Nigerian Army to close to about 40 senior Major Generals in the force.
Defence analysts wondered how Alli-Keffi, who belongs to Course 38 of the Nigerian Defence Academy will be appointed above several of his seniors, who are members of Courses 35, 36 and 37 and who are still serving in the same Nigerian Army.
There have also been speculations in some other sections of the military that Buhari had actually appointed one Major-General Haanatu of the Nigerian Army Armoured Corps as Attahiru’s successor.
The name of one Major-General Jamil Sarham is also being peddled by some other interests in the Army as late Attahiru’s replacement.
FirstNews, however, gathered that President Buhari may actually be looking towards the South-East this time round for a COAS to replace the late Attahiru, considering the availability of a senior officer from the zone in the Army and, politically, to assuage the Igbo, who have continued to accuse his government of marginalising the South-East in every aspect of the country, including the appointment of service chiefs.
However, FirstNews further learnt that the recent worsening insecurity in the South-East, which has culminated in the almost daily violence and attacks on policemen, other security agents and formations by suspected members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra may inhibit the zone from clinching the highest office in the Nigerian Army.
But some Army generals from a particular section of the country, according to military sources, have begun to whip up old sentiments, arguing that handing over such a high military command position to a COAS of South-East origin could be risky.
Military brass hats from the North-West, the zone the late Attahiru hailed from, FirstNews learnt, are also not leaving anything to chances as they are said to have begun strenuous campaigns as well as mounting pressure on the Presidency to appoint one of them as the new COAS to replace the deceased Army chief, who had spent less than six months in office before his sudden demise in last Friday’s air crash in Kaduna.
Similarly, Army generals from other Northern zones, First News learnt, are also pulling their weight with the Presidency to clinch the coveted position of the next COAS.
But competent military sources also told FirstNews that either of the two senior Army generals serving at the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos, Plateau State and the Nigerian Army Training and Doctrine Command, respectively, stand a better chance of being considered by President Buhari as Attahiru’s successor.
Already, the Presidency and the Nigerian Army have denied reports that President Buhari had appointed anyone as the new COAS to replace the late Attahiru.
First News
