The Presidency has said no money for buying arms to fight insurgency is missing as being reported in the media
National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno , was said to have alleged during an interview with BBC Hausa Service that the funds meant for arms procurement were missing under the former security chiefs.
But Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in an interview with Channels TV on Friday night assured that the $1 billion taken from the excess crude account was being utilised for the purpose and that nothing was missing.
He said the reference by it in the interview of the BBC in Hausa service by the national security adviser, had been misconstrued and mistranslated.
Shehu said the NSA made two critical points, which were that “One is that we don’t have enough which is a statement of fact, and two, procurements made have not been fully delivered.”
He noted that the procurements made have not been fully delivered and about $536 million of the money was paid directly in a government-to-government transaction with the United States government.
He explained that in August 2018, they allowed the Nigerian government to buy 12 super Tucano light aircraft suitable for the kind of war the nation is fighting in the north-east.
In addition to the Super Tucano, other arms of the military had also made procurement.
Shehu said the navy has done nearly 100 percent of their procurement, with the equipment delivered, adding that the Air Force had bought a number of attack helicopters.
Thirty-five helicopters were bought from Ukraine, he said.
He added that some of them had been commissioned on national television.
He said that the nation had bought a lot of drones.
He lamented that with the army, there had been problems with procurement, as the equipment had been coming in bits and pieces, which is not ideal.
“In fact, our biggest procurement is coming from the UAE. As I speak to you now, it is held up in a situation only diplomacy will resolve.
“We were talking to them last week; the Nigerian minister of defence actually had a meeting with the ambassador of the UAE to Nigeria, and the idea is to resolve this so that the equipment held up will be released. We need them here,” he said.
Shehu stated that all these procurement were ongoing, stressing that the NSA did not make accusations of misappropriation, because there was none in dealing with this matter.
He said he has heard the interview on radio and at no point did the NSA said that money were appropriated and there were no arms to be seen.
“They have not been delivered; yes, that is correct, but the thing is that they are things you buy on order, not off the shelf,” he explained.
