No sentiments in Buhari’s military appointments – APC chief

A chieftain of the  All Progressives Congress in the South- East geo-political zone, Paul Ikonne, on Wednesday said the recent appointment of service chiefs by President Muhammadu Buhari, is devoid of sentiments.

Ikonne, who was the Imo State governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria during the 2011 election, said this in an interview in Abuja.

He noted that those criticizing the President’s choice of helmsmen were being unfair to Nigeria and the Nigerian people.

Ikonne explained that the Buhari’s appointment of military chiefs was purely professional. The party chief said, “Fighting Boko Haram is not something you do by sentiment.”He appealed to his kinsmen in the South-East geo-political zone not to despair, because the Buhari-led APC administration will carry every section of the country along especially in terms of appointments and projects.

According to him, those trying to score cheap political points because no Igbo man made the list of service chiefs would soon bury their heads in shame, because President Buhari, has the whole of Nigeria especially people of the South East in mind.

He said, “For us in APC South-East, there is nothing to worry about. It is too early for anybody to begin to make such assumption considering the fact that some of the appointments so far are purely professional and fighting Boko Haram is not something you do by sentiment.

“Also, more appointments are still there, sensitive ones for that matter. So, anybody thinking that the president will persecute or persecuting the South-East, that person is just playing politics, and that is not the position of the Igbos.”He recalled that it is because of the importance the President attaches to the South-East that the President visited the entire states in the zone, a record eight times before the last general elections.This, he said, does not show a man who doesn’t have a regard for the South-East. He also expressed confidence that the President will prioritise infrastructural development across the nation out of which the South East stands to benefit immensely.