By Cosmas Omegoh
Ohaneze Ndigbo chieftain and onetime presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief Charles Udeogaranya has told President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint someone from the South East as Inspector-General of Police (IGP) if he found none from the region worthy to one of his service chiefs.
He said the argument that the president excluded Igbo in his latest appointment of service chiefs because he wanted competent persons for the job did not add up.
Speaking in a recent interview with Channels TV in defence of the appointments, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Buhari, Femi Adesina, said: “there were appointments subject to federal character and others not subject to federal character and that In security, It is about competence; it is about the ability to deliver. So, the president will appoint whoever he feels is fit and proper and will deliver to the best for the country and for Nigerians.”
While reacting to appointments based on competence, Udeogaranya described Adesina’s defence as “an aggravated insult to the people of the South-East region.”
“If the president truly found no person in the army competent to be appointed as a service chief, we then ask him to appoint one of us then as Inspector General of Police.
“But we should not forget that it was the same South-East that once produced the first commander in chief of the armed forces as Governor-General and President, Head of State of the country in the person of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. The South-East produced the second commander in chief by Nigeria’s first Acting President in the person of Nwafor Orizu.
“The South-East produced the first Nigerian military general, crowned by the United Nations in Congo for his competence in the world war and the same the man was Nigeria first military president and the 3rd commander in chief of the armed forces, in the person of Gen. J.T Aguiyi Ironsi.
“The war against Boko Haram insurgency and insecurity, received its best success combat by the Nigeria Army headed by a South-Eastner, Gen. Ihejirika. We, therefore demand that the presidency withdraws the derogatory statement against the South-East with a sincere apology in the quickest time possible.”