The military has again warned against plans to sabotage the handover of power to the President-elect, Bola Tinubu on May 29.
The high command said the armed forces were on standby and would ensure a smooth transition process scheduled to take place in 23 days. The Director of Defence Media Operations, Musa Danmadami handed down the warning as a former military Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, advised candidates challenging the outcomes of the last election to accept the court verdict.
Danmadami’s caution came a month after the Director of Defence Information, Tukur Gusau, vowed that the military would resist anything that would truncate democracy in the country. Also, the Chief of Army Staff, Faruk Yahaya, had threatened to crack down on potential threats to national security and warned the Indigenous People of Biafra, Eastern Security Network and other fringe groups not to test the will of the military.
Recall that some aggrieved candidates had kicked against the planned inauguration of the president-elect and called for the interim national government, but addressing defence correspondents at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja, Danmadami stated that the military would ensure that the inauguration was not derailed.
Meanwhile, in his admonition to the aggrieved candidates who have lodged petitions at the various election tribunals, Gowon urged them to respect the sanctity of the court and humbly accept its decision in the coming days. The elder statesmen gave the advice in Abuja at the 15th edition of the PUNUKA Annual Lecture 2023 and symposium in honour of the late justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Chike Idigbe.