‘Coup’: Buratai reorganises army, summons commanders to Abuja

Tukur Buratai, chief of army staff, on Friday summoned senior officers to the army headquarters in Abuja, to review the security situation in the country.

This followed allegations that the army was plotting to overthrow the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (JNDLF), the militant group which had earlier threatened to bomb Aso Rock, claimed that some senior military officers sought its assistance to displace the government of the day.

“Some top military men through their civil agents approached us to cause and continue the vandalization of the oil and gas pipelines in the Niger delta region so as to use as an excuse to take over the government from democracy to military rule in the country,” the group had said in a statement.

“We said no as such plan will not work and not in conformity with our genuine desire of agitation. The military want to disgrace him now and let him quickly look into the issues and make pronouncement for his administration to be in peace.”

But reaffirming the allegiance of the army to the constitution, Adeniyi Oyebade, general officer commanding (GOC), 1 division of the army, assured Nigerians that there would be no coup.

He said the military authority was not taking the issue lightly, as it had commenced full-scale probe to unravel what brought about the issue in the first place.

Oyebade spoke on some of the issues which transpired at the meeting Buratai had with his men.

“The issue of coup will not happen within the ranks of the army. The chief of army staff summoned his top commanders across the army for a quick meeting this morning,” he said.

“Essentially, the meeting was to review the security situation in the country and to also let us know some of the reorganisation that has taken place over the last few days.

“We want to assure all our citizens that the army remains apolitical, our loyalty, allegiance to the constitutional authority of this land, the three branches of government, Mr. President and commander-in-chief, our loyalty is unquestionable.

“We have decided long before now, since the beginning of the fourth Republic, to abide by our code of conduct and to remain subordinate to the civil authority.

“That has not changed and it will not change.

“We want to assure our people to be rest assured that the issue of coup will not happen within the ranks of the army and so also within the ranks of members of the Nigerian Armed Forces.’’

On other security matters, Oyebade said the army in conjunction with sister services remained unwavering in stemming the tide of terrorism in the north-east and militancy in the Niger Delta.

He said despite the challenges the military encountered in their operations in the north-east, they still remained committed to accomplishing their mission in the shortest time possible.

“You are aware that there was a reorganisation of the Niger Delta operations the army is still very strong,” he said.

“We will continue to do everything to ensure that issues of pipeline vandalism and oil theft will be severely curtailed in conjunction with our sister services – the Nigerian Navy, the Air Force, and other security agencies.

“We also did a review of our operations in the north-east it is going reasonably well there are challenges here and there.

“But we want to assure the nation that in no distant future we will bring it to a close, we are working very hard on that.’’