Jonathan denies sacking ex-service chiefs over unhealthy rivalry

    
President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday denied media reports (THE PUNCH not included) quoting him as saying that he sacked the nation’s former service chiefs because of unhealthy competition among security agencies.

He said he did not also say that the unhealthy rivalry among the services was responsible for recent security breaches in Adamawa State and other parts of the country.

Jonathan made the clarification in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati.

Abati accused a section of the media of choosing to deliberately misrepresent the President’s call for greater synergy and inter-service cooperation in the war against terrorism.

He said as the Commander-in-Chief of the nation’s Armed Forces, if Jonathan had any reprimand or admonition for the former service chiefs, which he does not, he would not have given such at a public function as reported.

He added that the President had nothing but praises for the manner in which the outgoing service chiefs did their job in very challenging circumstances.

According to him, members of the Armed Forces and all objective observers know that such changes are routine and in the interest of the growth and well-being of the Armed Services.

He said the President therefore had no need to justify the recent changes to anyone.

The statement read, “Reports in the media yesterday (Wednesday) which claimed that President Jonathan said during his visit to Yola on Tuesday that he ‘fired’ former service chiefs because of ‘unhealthy competition’ among them are untrue and misleading.

“It appears that for reasons of mischief and reckless sensationalism, a section of the media deliberately chose to misrepresent the President’s innocuous and clear call for greater synergy and inter-service cooperation in the war against terrorism.

“President Jonathan did not at anytime during his remarks in Yola say that the former chiefs were guilty of undue rivalry, nor did he say, as claimed by some newspapers, that such unhealthy rivalry was responsible for recent security breaches in Adamawa and other parts of the country.”

Punch