Following the retirement of the former service chiefs and the subsequent appointment of new ones by Nigeria’s President, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, a claim has been circulating on social media platforms. The claim suggests that there is no officer of Igbo extraction among the newly appointed service chiefs. Fact checkers at the Explainer have thoroughly examined this claim. The claim, which has appeared on Twitter and Facebook, includes a tweet from the account @Waspapping stating, “There’s not a single Igbo person in the newly appointed officers by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The Igbos had the chance to align and support Atiku Abubakar’s bid for presidency but they refused. You’re now seeing the results of that decision. Congratulations to all involved.”
Additionally, Facebook users Sunny Igboanugo and Ugwu Jude echoed similar sentiments, expressing concern about the absence of Igbo names among the appointments. The Explainer’s fact checkers reviewed the list of the newly appointed service chiefs and discovered that Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla, an Igbo man from Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State, was one of those appointed by President Tinubu; the officer was appointed as the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS). Therefore, it is clear that the claim asserting that no Igbo individual was appointed among the new service chiefs is false and misleading.
