The Presidency has said no fund was missing under the watch
of the immediate past service chiefs, adding that procurements have been made
for military weapons but the arms were yet to be delivered.
According to Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Media and Publicity, missing funds can’t happen under the regime
of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
Shehu spoke on Friday on Channels Television’s ‘Politics
Today’.
The National Security
Adviser to the President, Maj.-Gen Babagana Monguno (retd.), said some funds
meant for the purchase of arms to strengthen the country’s anti-terror war got
missing under the leadership of the ex-service chiefs.
The ex-service chiefs are Chief of Defence Staff, General
Abayomi Olonisakin (retd.); Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai (retd.);
Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas (retd.); and Chief of Air
Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar (retd.).
“No one knows what happened to the money but by God’s grace, the president will investigate to find out whether the money was spent and where the arms went,” the NSA had said in an interview with BBC Hausa on Friday.
But speaking hours later also on Friday, Shehu said the NSA
was misquoted, stressing that Monguno did not accuse the ex-service chiefs of
misappropriation of funds.
He said, “About the $1bn taken from the Excess Crude Account
with the consent of state governors used for military procurements, I want to
assure you that nothing of that money is missing.
“The reference by it in the interview of the BBC Hausa
Service by the National Security Adviser has been misconstrued and
mistranslated.
“NSA made two critical points –one is that we don’t have
enough weapons which is a statement of facts; and two procurements made have
not been fully delivered.”
“At no point did the NSA say that money has been
misappropriated and that no arms is seen. They have not been delivered, that is
correct; these are things you don’t get off the shelves,” Shehu noted.
The presidential spokesman said critics of the government
were being political by trying to make a comparison between a Peoples
Democratic Party government and an All Progressives Congress administration.
He said, “People are just been political, they want to draw
moral equivalent between the PDP and the APC administrations – we are not the
same, things like this cannot happen under a Buhari administrations.”
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