Sacking army chiefs

Nigeria's newly elected Peoples Democratic Party is in disagreement with the country's outgoing military rulers over the retirement of armed forces chiefs on 29 May when the new civilian government is to be sworn in, according to news reports on Friday. PDP spokesman Anietie Okon was quoted by Reuters as saying: "The law is clear: Army service chiefs should retire at the end of their tenure which coincides with the term of the person who appointed them." But Lieutenant-Colonel Sam Tella, an army spokesman responded: "it is our stance that the army chiefs will not retire on 29 May because there'll be no one in their place." Since independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria has been under military rule for all but 10 years. Human rights groups, according to press reports, were concerned that the military rulers had introduced a clause into the yet-to-be-published new constitution preventing President-elect Olusegun Obasanjo from sacking the army bosses.