CSOs back Buratai over coup rumour, Dubai assets

 The Niger Delta Youths Solidarity Movement (NDYSM) and the Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) have thrown their weight behind the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt- Gen. Tukur, Yusufu Buratai, over the recent coup and overseas assets controversies.

In separate statements today in Abuja, President of NDYSM, Comrade Prince Kpokpogri, said the coup report is a plot to destabilize the military operations against militants in Niger Delta, while HURIWA national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the overseas assets reports was a smear campaign against the person of Buratai and the Military institution.

Kpokpogri, who urged the federal government to empower the military to deal decisively with trouble makers in the region, said those behind the coup rumour are aware of the effectiveness with which the military leadership has dealt with Boko Haram insurgents and are afraid of what will befall them as militants and oil thieves.

“We urge President Buhari not to surrender the war against corruption to criminal elements simply because they are fantasizing about a phantom coup that the military has denied anyway. The coup story is definitely a strategy that was hurriedly thrown up when they saw that they cannot dare Nigeria’s military might. Their ploy to force President Buhari to decimate the military through a purge to be triggered by the allegation of a coup has definitely failed before they have implemented it,” he said.

Onwubiko on his part said: “General Buratai has nothing to hide and leads by personal example which he encourages his subordinates to emulate. He was the first military service chief to declare his assets and asked all officers to do so. This is unprecedented and has no doubt given credence to the government’s anti-corruption crusade. Possibly, this and several other accomplishments are some of the reasons why these faceless detractors want to drag his name into the mud.”

He added that the said investment was legitimately cumulated over long period of time and was declared to the Code of Conduct Bureau on his assumption of duty as Chief of Army Staff in July 2015.