The opportunity of the South East zone to produce a member of the Service Chiefs may suffer another snub as the Presidency may have decided to chose the new Chief of Army Staff from the North by sacrificing about 20 Generals including the highest ranking officer from the South East.
With the death of the Chief of Army Staff Ibrahim Attahiru on Friday, unconfirmed reports have claimed that Major General Danjuma Ali-Keffi, General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division Nigerian Army, Kaduna, may be appointed.
Pointblanknews.com has gathered that General Ali-Keffi was not among the most senior military officers in the operation of the Nigerian Army. He was only appointed a GOC only in March 2021.
In fact, he has more than 30 senior major generals above him in seniority amongst whom is Major General Ben Ahanotu from South East being the most qualified.
“The consequence of this if it is true, is that it will force these brilliant officers to retire at a period we need more hands in the prosecution of diverse operations across the country. I don’t think we need such mass retirement now,” a security expert opined.
However, a top military officer told pointblanknews.com that several factors are considered for the appointment of service chiefs beyond seniority.
“You know the President has the discretion to appoint anyone he so wishes with advice or probably a nomination from the Minister of Defence.
“Apart from Seniority in service, officers so considered must have been grounded in military operations and intelligence,” the officer said.
Major General Ben Ahanotu of Regular Course 35 is the current Chief of Policy and Plan, Nigeria Army.
He is from Anambra State and very fluent in Hausa language. He was the Commander of the Military Operation that captured the founder of Boko Haram Mohammed Yusuf and his followers at their hideout in Maiduguri in 2009 before handing them over to the Police.
