President Muhammadu Buhari has held a meeting behind closed doors with service chiefs on Monday, February 24, at the State House, Abuja.
Those present at the meeting are Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai, chief of army staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin, chief of defence staff; Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar, chief of air staff; Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas, chief of naval staff, and Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police.
Conspicuously absent, reports indicate, is the National Security Adviser, Babangana Monguno, who in recent memo to service chiefs complained about the interference of the the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Abba Kyari, on the areas of his brief.
Punch reports that the service chiefs later passed through Kyari’s office on their way out.
Buratai was the last sighted leaving about 3.55pm.
Pressure has been mounted on Buhari lately to sack the service chiefs, amid escalating security challenges in the country.
The National Assembly too has called for the sacking of the chiefs.
However, the President has yet to heed the calls and his regime argues that it will not take any hasty actions against the officers, who manned the country’s security operations since 2015.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that the National Security Adviser, Babangana Monguno, was not meant to attend the Buhari had with security chiefs and the IG, one of the President’s aides has explained.
The Personal Assistant to the President on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, disclosed this in a message he posted on his Twitter handle, @BashirAhmaad.
Ahmad was reacting to media reports that Monguno was conspicuously missing at the meeting which was the first Buhari had with the service chiefs after his (Monguno’s) letter to them (the service chiefs) to stop holding meeting with and taking instructions from the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, became a public knowledge.
“NSA was initially not part of the meeting,” he simply wrote.
But our correspondent reported that the tradition has been that the NSA and the Minister of Defence are always present whenever the President is meeting security chiefs.
