There are strong indications that fresh pressures are being mounted on President Muhammadu Buhari to probe the current Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd) and the serving Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, over alleged arms scandal in the military.
President Buhari, it was learnt, is being pressurised to extend the probe of those involved in the arms procurement scandal to include both Dambazau and Buratai, alleged to have been indicted in the report of the Presidential Committee on the Audit of Defence Equipment Procedure in the Armed Forces.
Dambazau, said to be the President’s longtime friend and a current member of his cabinet, was appointed the Chief of Army staff by late President Umaru Yar’Adua and served between 2008 and 2010.
In the unabridged version of the committee’s report, details of alleged financial misappropriation and fraud perpetrated in the military between 2008 and 2010, when Dambazau was in office as COAS, were given.
Our correspondent gathered that a group of retired Army generals and influential politicians, not comfortable with the alleged removal of Dambazau and Buratai’s names from the report of the probe panel on the arms scandal, are now exerting pressure on President Buhari to extend his anti-corruption crusade to the two members of his administration.
Presidency sources disclosed that the fresh demand for the inclusion of Dambazau and Buratai in the list of those being investigated for the scandal became imperative, following the discovery in the Presidency that the unedited report of the panel on arms procurement from 2007 to 2015 “heavily indicted” the former COAS and the incumbent Army boss, Buratai.
The panel, in the course of its investigation, uncovered a lot of fraudulent practices allegedly perpetrated by some serving and retired military top-brass as well as officials of the Ministry of Defence, including the outright stealing of money meant for the purchase of equipment for the army, inflation of contracts, non-remittance of withholding tax and value added tax deducted from contract sum, diversion of money meant for soldiers’ welfare and for the rehabilitation of barracks as well as other military facilities.
The panel also unearthed series of shady deals and corrupt practices allegedly perpetrated by the officers involved in the scandal.
President Buhari had in July, ordered the investigation of two former Army chiefs, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika and Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah, and 52 other persons for their roles in the diversion of billions of dollars meant for the procurement of arms for the Nigerian military to prosecute the war against Boko Haram.
The copy of the reports of the Air Vice Marshal Jon Ode (rtd)-led Presidential Panel made available to President Buhari, was, however, said to have excluded Dambazau and Buratai.
A prominent second republic politician and Northern leader, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, had last month raised the alarm that a cabal in the Presidency doctored the Arms Procurement Probe Report to shield the incumbent minister of interior, Dambazau, who is a former Chief of Army Staff and the current chief of Army staff, who served under him as the Director of Procurements at the Defence Headquarters.
Our correspondent learnt that some highly placed retired Army generals and politicians recently drew the attention of President Buhari to the observations by a United Nations Military Inspection Team, led by one Lt. Col.. Frank Leonhardt, which visited Nigeria between August 31 and September 2, 2009 to inspect the Armoured Personnel Carriers to be deployed to Darfur.
The UN Military Inspection Team was said to have condemned Nigeria’s then ‘newly purchased’ military equipment as of ‘ZERO STANDARD’ and below the world
body’s expectations.
But inspite of the observations of the UN inspection team, the Nigerian Army under Dambazau was said to have gone ahead to deploy some of the sub-standard APCs, causing the country a huge embarrassment and even leading to the death of some officers in Darfur, Sudan.
According to a part of the Arms Procurement Panel Report, shortly before and largely during Dambazau’s tenure as COAS, “Nigerian Army awarded contracts totalling N700,000,000.00 and $63,349.470.00 to Suncraft International Ltd and Singapore Kinetics Technologies Ltd between 9 January 2007 and 6 May 2009 for the retrofitting of MK1 Fast Patrol Crafts and procurement of 50
Scorpion Fast Patrol Crafts, respectively.
“The MOD, between 29 April 2005 and 19 October 2010, awarded 2 contracts to Progress Limited for the supply of 42 units of BTR-3U APCs and spare parts to the Nigerian Army. Neither the MOD nor the NA could provide the contract agreements to ascertain the cost of the APCs.
“However, a Nigerian Army Audit Report stated that the contractor exploited the non-inclusion of specific spares list in the contract agreement and failed to deliver the requisite spare parts that were to accompany the 42 units of the APCs. Fundamental issues raised on the status of the APCs by the plant representative at the Kiev Engineering Plant in
Ukraine were ignored.
“Delivery commenced in 2007 and quantity 26 of the delivered APCs were immediately deployed to UNAMID for Peace Keeping Operations but scandalously, broke down on induction.
“The unfortunate situation necessitated the award of another contract to the same company on 19 October 2010 by the MOD for the procurement of major spare parts for the repairs of the APCs at the cost of $162,089.84, only. However, only a few quantity of the items needed for the maintenance of the APCs were delivered. For instance, only 4 out of the 84 contracted units of tyres were delivered and found to have expired. The Committee observed that the APCs did not meet the operational requirement for the Nigerian Army.
“Furthermore, the breakdown of the APCs on deployment to UNAMID caused Nigeria international embarrassment and deprived her appropriate re-imbursement from the United Nations.”
Hinging their demand for Dambazau’s and Buratai’s probe on the observations of the UN military inspection team and the original report of the AVM Ode-led Presidential Committee on the Audit of Defence Equipment Procedure in the Armed Forces, the retired Army generals and powerful politicians were said to have, at a recent closed door meeting with President Buhari, urged him to direct an investigation into the role allegedly played by the two serving officials in his administration in the arms procurement scandal.
