BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
The Senate has confirmed the appointment of Major General Farouk Yahaya as the Chief of Army Staff.
This followed a report of the Joint Senate Committee on Defence and Army at plenary on Tuesday presented by the committee’s chairman, Senator Aliyu Wamakko.
President Buhari recently appointed Yahaya, who was last week grilled on his new post. Yahaya now replaces the late Lieutenant General Ibrahim Athahiru, who in May, died in a plane crash in Kaduna.
In the presentation, Wamako noted that Yahaya’s nomination was in adherence to section 217 (2abc) of the 1999 Constitution as amended and in accordance with the provision of sections 18(1) of the Armed Forces Act, Cap A20 Law of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.
Wamako added that Committee did not receive any petitions against Yahaya’s nomination and he was cleared by the Department of State Security Service.
The lawmaker said that during the screening exercise, “the nominee’s knowledge of the strategic capabilities of the Army was exhaustive and impressive.
“He showed a clear knowledge of the Army with apt for a Chief of Army Staff. Despite the Army being the largest of the Armed Forces, the nominee was clear in his vision to encourage joint operational synergy with other services for success in all theatre of operations,” he said.
The lawmaker added that the Committee urged the Army Chief and the military to exhaust all avenues to ensure that peace is restored to all parts of the country.
