Barely a week after resigning from office and their replacements inaugurated, President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday nominated his immediate past service chiefs as non-career ambassadors, while extending by three months the tenure of the Inspector General Of Police, Mohammed Adamu.
A statement by presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, on Thursday evening, said the president had forwarded the names of the former service chiefs to the Senate for confirmation as non-career ambassadors.
They include former Chief of Defence Staff, Gabriel Olonisakin; former Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai; former Chief of Air Staff, Ibok Ibas; and former Chief of Naval Staff, Abubakar Sadique.
Their confirmation as non-career diplomats confer on them immunity from prosecution.
It will be recalled that there have been calls since their retirement last week for the prosecution of especially Mr Buratai who led the Nigerian Army for about five and a half years.
Buratai’s tenure of over five years was characterised by the extrajudicial killings of hundreds of Nigerians by soldiers.
These ranged from the killing of hundreds of Shiites in Zaria, the shooting of innocent civilians who were protesting at the Lekki Toll Gate to the extrajudicial killings in Oyigbo, an Igbo settlement in Rivers State.
The soldiers and officers involved in the killings were never prosecuted or punished.
Meanwhile, in a related development and happening simultaneously, the Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, at the presidential villa, on Thursday, announced the extension of the tenure of the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Adamu by three months.
Adamu’s tenure as IGP expired last Monday, having spent the maximum 35 years in service.
Mr Dingyadi said the extension was necessary to give room for the proper selection of a successor.