Saturday 16 January 2016

Fresh Arms Cash Looting: EFCC goes after 18 senior Generals



From Monday next week, the eighteen military chiefs that President Muhammadu Buhari ordered EFCC to probe will start appearing before the anti-graft commission.

The EFCC had sent invitations to some of the Generals and the companies, whose names featured in the report submitted to President Buhari.

Confirming the latest development, a source in the commission stated, “We have sent invitations to many of them and as from Monday, they will start coming.”
President Buhari had on Friday directed the EFCC to carry out further investigation into the alleged misconduct established against some retired and serving officers of the Nigerian Air Force and Nigerian Army.

Those affected in the order include:
Ex-National Security Adviser, Col. ​Sambo Dasuki (retd.); former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (retd.); and two former Chiefs of Air Staff, Air Marshal MD Umar (retd.) and Air Marshal Adesola Amosun (retd.).

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, disclosed the President’s directive in a statement made available to journalists on Friday.

Shehu said the directive was based on the recommendation of the committee established to audit the procurement of arms and equipment in the Armed Forces and Defence sector from 2007 to 2015.

The total budget for procuring arms for the military within the period according to the Federal Government, is N1.67trn.

In its first interim report, the Committee on Audit of Defence Equipment established that the sum N643bn and $2.1bn interventions were received for procurements by DHQ and the services between 2007 and 2015.

He listed others that the President asked the EFCC to probe to include:
Maj.-​Gen. ​E.R ​Chioba (retd.); AVM​​ I.A​ Balogun (retd.); AVM ​A.G​ Tsakr (retd.); AVM​​ A.G​ Idowu (retd.);AVM ​A.M ​Mamu; AVM ​O.T ​Oguntoyinbo; AVM ​T. ​Omenyi; AVM ​J.B ​Adigun; AVM​​ R.A ​Ojuawo; AVM ​​J.A ​Kayode-Beckley; Air Cdre ​SA ​Yushau (retd.); Air Cdre ​A.O ​Ogunjobi; Air Cdre​ G.M.D ​Gwani; Air Cdre S.O ​Makinde; Air Cdre A.Y ​Lassa​; ​and Col. N ​Ashinze.

Shehu added that following the submission of the audit committee’s second interim report, the President had also directed the EFCC to investigate the roles of the officers as well as some companies and their directors in fundamental breaches associated with the procurements by the Office of the National Security Adviser and the Nigerian Air Force.

He also gave the names of those affected.

The breaches identified by the audit committee included non-specification of procurement costs, absence of contract agreements, award of contracts beyond authorised thresholds, transfer of public funds for unidentified purposes and general non-adherence to provisions of the Public Procurement Act.

“Furthermore, the procurement processes were arbitrarily carried out and generally characterised by irregularities and fraud. In many cases, the procured items failed to meet the purposes they were procured for, especially in the fight that could have helped our soldiers defeat Boko Haram.

The presidential spokesman also said the committee established that ONSA also funded the procurement of four used Alpha-Jets for the NAF at the cost of seven million, one hundred and eighty thousand US Dollars ($7,180,000.00).

However, according of him, it was confirmed that only two of the Alpha-Jet aircraft were ferried to Nigeria after cannibalisation of engines from NAF fleet.

This, he added, was contrary to the written Amosu’s assertion to the former NSA that all the four procured Alpha-Jets aircraft were delivered to the NAF.

He said the non-militarisation of the Alpha-Jets made them unsuitable for deployment to the North-East and they are currently deployed for mere training.

“In continuation of its assignment, the Committee has so far established that the nation spent about twenty nine billion Naira (N29bn) and two billion US Dollars ($2bn) on NAF procurement activities alone” without anything meaningful on the ground to show for it. Nigeria needs serious cleansing.

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