President Buhari
The allegation by the National Security Adviser, Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd), that the ex-service chiefs squandered money meant for the purchase of arms to fight terrorists has continued to generate heated debate.
The Chairman, Board of Trustees, Coalition of Arewa Youths, Nastura Ashir Shariff has added his voice by calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate the whereabouts of the security funds released to the immediate past military service chiefs to fight insecurity in the country.
In a BBC Hausa Service interview, Monguno had alleged that the new Service Chiefs had confirmed that they could not find anything on the ground with regards to the arms purchased for the war against insecurity.
It would be recalled that the Buhari government released $1 billion to help in the fight against insurgency.
Speaking in Kano with Sunday Sun, the Chairman BOT of Arewa Youths expressed shock at the frank but disturbing disclosure, saying that it was hard to believe that Nigeria had no weapons on ground for the war despite having released the sum of $1billion about three years ago to the ex- Security Chiefs to conduct the battle.
“For the past six years, they have been saying that they have procured weapons, yet they had nothing on the ground,” he observed while noting that the administration had adopted a cosmetic approach to execute the war.
Sharriff expressed concern over the handling of the ex-Service Chiefs upon their retirement, saying: “Look at it this way. Because they want them not to be investigated, they quickly rewarded them with ambassadorial appointments so as to give them immunity from any form of probe.”
Monguno had said in the interview: “It is not reluctance in handling the bandits, the President of the Federal Republic has done his utmost best by releasing huge funds for procurement of arms but they were not purchased. We couldn’t see anything on ground. Now the President has brought in new hands who may have a different approach. I am not saying the former Service Chiefs embezzled the arms money, but it is a fact that money budgeted for that purpose has been misappropriated and no one can account for it.
“The President will surely investigate it. As I am talking to you, even the governors in their (Governors’) Forum have started complaining that billions of dollars have been allocated for security yet nothing on the ground. I can assure you that the President will not take this lightly.
Probed further to confirm if the arms money was embezzled by the former service chiefs, Monguno said, “I can’t say for now since it is subject to investigations which will reveal the facts of the matter, but it is certain that the money has been misappropriated and they cannot be accounted for and the new service chiefs have confirmed that they haven’t seen anything on ground to justify the allocated funds. Nothing is on the ground as I am speaking to you now.”
