Panic As Arms Panel Prepares To Submit Report; Dambazau, Ihejirika, Minimah Indicted
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, PREMIUM TIMES has learned.
A reliable source close to the
committee, which was set up by Mr. Buhari to probe the procurement of
arms, ammunition and equipment in the military from 2007 to 2015, told
this newspaper that several top retired army officers were indicted and
some were already scheming to suppress the content of the report.
Our
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.
Mr.
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,” our source said.
Our 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, Mr. 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, Mr. 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, Mr. 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.
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