• Friday, March 29, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

Insecurity: PENGASSAN backs call to let go service chiefs

Lumumba Okugbawa

The demand on President Muhammadu Buhari to let go the service chiefs is spreading across sectors, as workers under Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) on Monday added their voice.

PENGASSAN, through its secretary general, Lumumba Okugbawa also warned that it might no longer guarantee the current industrial in the oil and gas sector of the nation’s economy, if the deteriorating security situation across Nigeria is not arrested by the Federal Government.

The chiefs include Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, and Chief of Air Staff. They are Abayomi Olonisakin, Tukur Buratai, Ibok-Ete Ibas, and Sadiq Abubakar respectively. They were appointed to occupy their various positions by President Muhammadu Buhari in July, 2015.

Last week, the Nigerian Senate and House of Representatives, urged the president to sack the service chiefs, as insecurity: killings, kidnappings seem to have peaked in the last two months, with mosque bombed and some Christian leaders beheaded in the northern parts of the country.

The PENGASSAN on Monday said it was in full support of the call to sack the service chiefs or their immediate resignation for failing to tackle the wave of “criminality and alarming insecurity” in the country.

“To us as an association, the service chiefs have overstayed their tenure in office in the various arms of the nation’s armed forces thereby contravening the Armed Forces Laws on retirement and disengagement from active service and have therefore become lethargic.

On daily basis, stories of killings in states such as Borno, Plateau, Kaduna, Adamawa and the recent beheading of the Adamawa State CAN chairman have saturated the mass media. The Boko Haram sect for example, has been relentless in the shedding of blood and destruction of properties of innocent victims. We condemn in totality these atrocities and find it highly unacceptable.”

The union also called for the declaration of a state of emergency and total overhaul of the nation’s security apparatus, as well as a systematic mop up of arms and ammunitions illegally acquired by politicians in the build-up to the 2019 general elections.

“We hinge this renewed call on the fact that the security networks as presently constituted have lost its value and focus and something drastic need to be done before the country drift into anarchy.

It is this growing insecurity that has led to regional creation of security apparatus like the Amotekun, by the South-West governors and other regions itching to create theirs which might lead in the long run, regional demand for autonomy with its attendant consequences. As it is, we cannot continue to guarantee the current industrial peace in our sector should there be no improvement on the part of the Federal Government in arresting this insecurity trend.”

Recall that PENGASSAN and Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers  (NUPENG) had three weeks ago raised the alarm over the increasing insecurity in the country and the need to curtail the tides of blood-letting, criminal characters and kidnappings perpetuated on the citizens by criminal elements and tribal bigots masquerading under toga of religion.