No fewer than 20 serving senior Generals in the Army may be forced to retire from service as a result of the appointment of new service chiefs. The officers are said to be of Regiment Courses 34 and 35 who are senior to the new service chiefs.
Among the senior officers expected to retire is Lt. General Lamidi Adeosun, the Chief of Training and Operations, Army headquarters, who wears the same rank with General Tukur Buratai, the former Army Chief. Adeosun was promoted in 2019 to the rank by President Buhari.
However, sources at the Defence headquarters said that two options are available to the authorities.
First the service years of some of them might be extended by the new Chief of Army Staff who would probably need their wealth of experience in the ongoing counterinsurgency campaign in the Northeast.
Another option is that some of them might be posted to the Defence headquarters, where they would not be reporting to the Army Chief.
President Muhammadu Buhari had yesterday, January 26, appointed the new service chiefs: Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General Lucky Irabor; Chief of Army Staff, Major-General I. Attahiru; Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral A.Z Gambo, and the Chief of Air Staff, Air-Vice Marshal Isiaka Amao.
According to Buhari, the outgoing service chiefs: the Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin; Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar had turned in their notice of retirement.
