Emergency rule: Reactions trail calls for 3 govs’ suspension

As reactions continue to trail insinuations  that the  Security Council Meeting scheduled for this today would consider suspending the governors of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, with a view to imposing total emergency rule, Adamawa state governor, Murtala Nyako, yesterday decried that  “some top military brass are now playing politics with the emergency rule”.

While reacting, Nyako, who spoke through his special adviser on election matters, Alhaji Usman Ibrahim, regretted that some politicians in the country  want to politicise the military, which could have serious repercussions.

He asked that, “How are these governors and other political office holders hindering the military operations in the 3 states? Are they commanding the military’ restricting their operation in any way or denying them share of the security funds? Are they responsible for the military’s inability to use their might and strategy on the insurgents? The whole thing is so confusing. Someone should help clarify please.”

Also commenting, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain in the state and one-time lecturer at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Dr Umar Ardo, stressed the need for the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, to investigate comments credited to the unnamed serving military officer calling for the suspension of democratically elected governors and lawmakers.

In a telephone conversation, Ardo described the comments as an attempt to politicise the military, which could have serious repercussions.
He said, “I feel concerned and seriously disturbed reading in a newspaper, a military officer plunging into what is purely a political matter – the extension or otherwise of the State of Emergency in the three North-eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.”

He noted that these issues are completely outside and beyond the domain of the military as they are purely political in nature.
The PDP chieftain also advised members of the media to refrain from reporting such political comments from anonymous military officers. “You either name the officer or you don’t carry the story.