The Minister of Defence, Mansur Muhammad Dan-Ali and Defence Headquarters have raised an alarm over a false story going round on the social media claiming that letters have been despatched to the Chief of Defence Staff General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin and Chief of the Naval staff Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas directing them to hand over their offices on or before friday, 16 december.
A statement by Col. Tukur Gusau, Public Relations officer to the minister said that there was no such communication between the office of the Honourable Minister of Defence and the service chiefs directing any one of them to hand over his office and proceed on retirement.
“The appointment and replacement of service chiefs is a prerogative responsibility of the office of the President and Commander in Chief. Please endevour to always balance your stories from the right sources to avoid mischef,” the statement said.
Similarly, the Director Defence Information, Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar described the rumours as baseless and unfounded, adding that the service chiefs are still discharging their official responsibilities.
General Rabe said “It is disturbing and embarrassing the cooked up stories going round in the social media. There is no iota of truth in the misleading information. We ask the public to ignore the report as baseless and unfounded,” he concluded
Some online media(not NewMailNG) allegedly reported that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the retirement from service of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Gabriel Olonisakin, and the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas.
Some of the media even claimed that the Minister of Defence, Brig.- Gen. Mansur Dan-Ali (rtd), had since sent letters to the Service Chiefs, wherein they were directed to handover on or before Friday, December 16.
The media further speculated that Olonisakin and Ibas’ disengagements were based on their attaining the official years of retirement from the military.
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