The Nigerian army has clarified that the new army chief of staff, Major-General. Faruk Yahaya’s service began on September 22, 1990 when he was appointed an officer.
The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Yerima, made this clarification in a statement Tuesday in Abuja.
Yerima said SFOC, during its confirmation screening at the National Assembly, mentioned that it was drawing on its 36 years of military experience.
According to him, Yahaya told senators that he brought “into this highly loaded office, about 36 years of military experience, having joined the army on September 27, 1985 as a member of the 37th Regular Course (Diploma)”.
Yerima noted that SFOC went further in stating that “since the moment he passed out on September 22, 1990”.
He said, for the record, that SFOC had accurately captured his military experience to include the five years he spent training as an officer cadet at the Nigerian Defense Academy.
“However, an officer’s service record counts from the day he is commissioned.
“This is clearly stated in the harmonized conditions of service (agents) revised in 2017,” he said.
“In the case of the 22nd SFOC, as he made clear, it was commissioned on September 22, 1990, which is the benchmark for its years of service.
“So that means the message being broadcast is completely inaccurate and out of context,” he said.
The military spokesperson, however, urged the public to ignore allegations that tended to portray SFOC had spent 36 years in service.
According to him, the allegations emanated from an ignorance of the military service or from an evil which is best explained by its authors. (NAN)
