A former presidential aspirant, Adamu Garba has called out President Muhammadu Buhari, his Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and their wives for not attending the burial ceremony of the late Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Ibrahim Attahiru, who died in a plane crash on Friday evening in Kaduna.
KanyiDaily had reported how Attahiru died along other military officers in a plane crash while on an official trip to Kaduna on Friday, May 21, 2021.
The funeral for the late COAS and six other senior officers took place on Saturday afternoon at the National Military Cemetery in Abuja.
The President and his vice, the Senate president and his deputy, and the speaker of the House of Representative were all conspicuously missing during the burial of the late COAS on Saturday.
Most governors snubbed the burial on Saturday and attended the wedding ceremony of a son of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, in Kano State.
Reacting in a series of tweets on Sunday morning, Adamu said, “In a war situation, we lost four generals, majors and lieutenants, yet neither the President nor his vice, senate president nor his deputy, speaker nor his deputy deem it fit to grace the burial.
“Even the wife of the COAS was neither accompanied by the First Lady or Second Lady.
“Only two Govs, Zulum and Buni with a few ministers might have attended. While Gov. Wike is having political rally, other govs are attending a wedding in Kano.
“I saw the video of the wife of late COAS walking to pay her last respect to her husband with a few friends. I was heartbroken.
“Yet most of these leaders may say they have a very important reason why they didn’t attend. Coincidentally, all of them, none of them would sacrifice 30 minutes for the life of soldiers who died trying to protect us. The highest level officers of our land. How can that be?
“For them, Twitter is enough for condolences, but they can go campaigning all over the country, during elections.
“Apparently, the only thing that matters to our leaders is not us, or even the most senior members of their appointees, but political power.”
Meanwhile, President Buhari has expressed sadness over the death of Ibrahim Attahiru, describing the incident as a “mortal blow” to the country.
KanyiDaily recalls that President Buhari had on January 26, 2021 appointed Attahiru to succeeded Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai as the Chief of Army Staff.