Two days after he was officially retired by President Bola Tinubu, chief of naval staff, Awwal Zubairu Gambo refused to handover to his successor Ikechukwu Ogalla.
WesternLifeNewsNG reported that President Tinubu on Monday retired all the service chiefs and immediately names replacement for same.
Meanwhile, People Gazette, in an exclusive report, said the naval chief had refused to leave his post, until Friday.
Quoting multiple sources at the Nigerian Navy headquarters in Abuja, the newspaper reports that Gambo insisted to pay contractors and naval officers from an outstanding capital vote to the tune of billions of naira before leaving office.
“The chief of naval staff is still here,” a source told The Gazette from the Nigerian Navy headquarters in Abuja. “We have been begging him to comply with the order of the president and vacate office for the new person that was appointed.”
Mr Gambo reportedly said he was responsible for the release of the funds to the Nigerian Navy and will not be leaving office until entitled contractors and naval officers had been paid.
Sources said Mr Gambo insisted that the payment to contractors may be delayed by his successor, even though he was assured that the navy would meet all valid contractual obligations.
“He wants to pay contractors, himself and other naval officers some billions in capital,” a senior naval officer told The Gazette. “We have never seen anything like this before in our service.”
“He should realise that any action he takes after the president’s public announcement is null and void in the Nigerian Navy,” the official added.
Mr Gambo also said he wanted to oversee the disbursement of millions of dollars for emergency repair work on the NNS Aradu, one of the largest ships in the navy.
“He also mentioned that he was finalising payment for the repair of NNS Aradu, despite our conclusion that the ship should be decommissioned and sent to the naval museum,” a source said.
According to People Gazette, the navy under Mr Gambo had reportedly budgeted $200 million for the repairs, even though he was advised to take the ship, first commissioned in 1980, out of service.
Mr Ogalla, 54, a rear admiral, who is expected to replace Gambo, attended the Nigerian military school in northern Zaria city. He also obtained a master’s degree from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria’s southwest.
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