Former Nigeria's military chiefs
According to an exclusive report on Premium Times, there is tension
and frantic scheming among former army chiefs and other top officers of
the Nigerian Army as the Presidential Committee on Defence Equipment
Procurement in the Nigerian Armed Forces concludes its task and is set
submit its report of President Muhammadu Buhari in the coming days.
A reliable source close to the committee, which was set up by
Buhari to probe the procurement of arms, ammunition and equipment in the
military from 2007 to 2015, told the publication that several top
retired army officers were indicted and some were already scheming to
suppress the content of the report.
A source, who described the report as “damning” and “explosive”,
said retired top army officers indicted include present minister of
interior, Abdurrahman Bello Dambazau, the immediate past chief of army
staff, Kenneth Minimah, and his predecessor, Azubuike Ihejirika.
Dambazau was particularly mentioned as trying to suppress the
content of the report. He was appointed the chief of army staff by late
President Umaru Yar’Adua, and served between 2008 and 2010. “The committee members are putting things together and will present its findings to the president in the next week or so,” the source said.
The source explained that the committee uncovered a whole lot of
things including the outright stealing of money meant for equipment for
the army, inflation of contract, diversion of money for soldiers’
welfare, money for the rehabilitation of barracks and military
facilities and many other corrupt practices.
In March 2016, the committee, predominantly made up of retired
military officers, had summoned 292 retired and serving top army
officers including Messrs. Dambazau, Ihejirika and Minimah.
Last August, Buhari directed the national security adviser,
Mohammed Mongonu, to set up a 13-member investigative committee on the
procurement of hardware and munitions in the Armed Forces from 2007.
A statement by the Special Adviser to the president on media and
publicity, Femi Adesina, stated that the investigative committee’s
mandate is to identify irregularities and make recommendations for
streamlining the procurement process in the armed forces.
The establishment of the investigative committee was in keeping
with President Buhari’s determination to stamp out corruption and
irregularities in Nigeria’s public service, Adesina said.
“It comes against the background of the myriad of challenges
that the Nigerian Armed Forces have faced in the course of ongoing
counter-insurgency operations in the Northeast, including the apparent
deficit in military platforms with its attendant negative effects of
troops’ morale.
“The committee will specifically investigate allegations of
non-adherence to correct equipment procurement procedures and the
exclusion of relevant logistics branches from arms procurement under
past administrations, which, very often resulted in the acquisition of
sub-standard and unserviceable equipment,” the statement said.
In January, Buhari ordered the arrest of the former chief of air
force, Adesola Amosu, and other top officers of the Nigerian Air Force
after an interim report of an inquiry into the procurement of equipment
uncovered widespread diversion of funds and fraud.
Those indicted by the report were former national security adviser,
Sambo Dasuki, former chief of defence staff, Alex Badeh, and another
former chief of air staff, Mohammed Umar. All of them and other top
officers are facing corruption charges in court.
“The procurement processes were arbitrarily carried out and generally characterized by irregularities and fraud,” the panel said. “In
many cases, the procured items failed to meet the purposes they were
procured for, especially the counter insurgency efforts in the North
East.”
“A major procurement activity undertaken by ONSA for NAF was
that concerning the contracts awarded to Societe D’ Equipment
Internationaux (SEI) Nig Ltd.
“Between January 2014 and February 2015, NAF awarded 10
contracts totalling Nine Hundred and Thirty Million, Five Hundred
Thousand, Six Hundred and Ninety US Dollars ($930,500,690.00) to SEI Nig
Ltd.
“Letters of award and End User Certificates for all the
contracts issued by NAF and ONSA respectively did not reflect the
contract sums. Rather, these were only found in the vendor’s invoices,
all dated 19 March 2015,” it said.
The panel said some of the award letters contained misleading
delivery dates suggesting fraudulent intent in the award process. The
observed discrepancies are in clear contravention of extant procurement
regulations.
“The SEI contracts included procurement of two used Mi-24V
Helicopters instead of the recommended Mi-35M series at the cost of One
Hundred and Thirty Six Million, Nine Hundred and Forty Four Thousand US
Dollars ($136,944,000.00).
“However, it was confirmed that the helicopters were
excessively priced and not operationally air worthy at the time of
delivery. A brand new unit of such helicopters goes for about Thirty
Million US Dollars ($30m),” it noted.
Furthermore, the helicopters were delivered without rotor blades and upgrade accessories.
“Additionally, the helicopters were undergoing upgrade while
being deployed for operation in the North East without proper
documentation. It was further established that as at date, only one of
the helicopters is in service while the other crashed and claimed the
lives of two NAF personnel.
“The Committee established that ONSA also funded the
procurement of 4 used Alpha-Jets for the NAF at the cost of Seven
Million, One Hundred and Eighty Thousand US Dollars ($7,180,000.00).
However, it was confirmed that only 2 of the Alpha-Jet aircraft were
ferried to Nigeria after cannibalization of engines from NAF fleet.
“This is contrary to the written assertion of the former Chief
of Air Staff, Air Marshal AN Amosu to the former NSA that all the 4
procured Alpha-Jets aircraft were delivered to the NAF.
“The non-militarisation of the Alpha-Jets made them unsuitable
for deployment to the North East and they are currently deployed only
for training at NAF Kainji.
“Furthermore, the procurement of the Alpha-Jets was contrary to
the recommendation of the assessment team. The Committee found that the
conduct of Air Marshal Amosu was deliberately misleading and
unpatriotic,” the panel said.
Source: Premium Times
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