Reps call for urgent review of procurement of arms, ammunitions for security agencies

House of Representatives Committee on Army on Wednesday, called for an urgent review of the procurement of arms and ammunitions for the Nigerian Army and all the security agencies operating in the country.

This was to prevent future occurrences of the lingering controversies over the purchase of arms and ammunitions and alleged purchase of substandard arms involving some top military officers.

Some top military personnel including Sambo Dasuki, National Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, are currently facing criminal and corruption charges before Federal High Courts and Abuja High Court, respectively.

While addressing the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai and top army officers during the 2015/2016 budget defence, Rima Shawulu, chairman and members of the House Committee, expressed concerns over the sorry state of the facilities in the 30 military formations and barracks recently visited during the familiarisation tour conducted by the committee.

Meanwhile, Buratai told the committee “all the service chiefs and those involved in the procurement are retired, so we are limited on the extent we can investigate them.”

But in a swift response, Shawulu disclosed that the House had the constitutional powers to probe into the arm scandal.

The committee also queried the delay in the release of the supplementary budget N3,196,089,405 for salaries of Nigerian Army including N1,987,056,478 for 72 recruitments, N768,637,124 for 62 regular combatants and N440,395,803 for 22 direct short service.

“In all, we visited and related with officers in about 30 formations in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. The findings are sobering and a rethinking of the way we do things.”

 

KEHINDE AKINTOLA