In a twist to President Muhammadu
Buhari’s order for the probe of two former Chiefs of Army Staff,
Lt.-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika and Lt. -Gen. Kenneth Minimah, and 52
others, over arms procurement scandal, some retired military officers
and other Nigerians have said that the probe should be extended to the
Minister of Interior, Lt. -Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd.), and the
current Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai.
They questioned the exclusion of
Dambazau and Buratai from the list of those to be probed when the chief
of army staff was the Director of Military Procurement during the period
the arms scandal was alleged to have been committed.
They said the call for Buratai’s probe
became more necessary given the revelation that the Chief of Army Staff
bought $1.5m properties in Dubai with “stolen money.''
According to them, Buhari’s fight
against corruption will appear to be one-sided if Buratai is left in his
position and not being probed in spite of the allegations against him.
President Buhari had ordered the probe
of 54 persons, including Ihejirika and Minimah for their roles in the
arms scandals that saw billions of dollars meant for the procurement of
arms for the Nigerian military for the prosecution of the war against
Boko Haram insurgency diverted to private pockets.
The affected persons include 18 serving
and retired personnel, 12 serving and retired public officials and 24
chief executive officers of companies involved in the arms procurements
between 2011 and 2015.
The move had followed Buhari’s approval
of the recommendation of the Presidential Committee on the Audit of
Defence Equipment Procurement in the Armed Forces led by AVM Jon Ode
(retd.).
In June, the Nigerian Army Council had
retired a former aide de camp to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan; Col.
Ojogbane Adegbe; a former Principal Secretary to an ex -National
Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.); Col. Nicholas Achinze, a
former ADC to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, Brig. Gen. A. H.
Sa’ad; and 57 other senior officers for their involvements in the
scandal.
However, the retired military officers
said the President’s war against corruption should be impartially
prosecuted. One of them, Col. Kunle Falayi (retd.) expressed support for
the ongoing anti-graft war, but urged the President to ensure that it
was not one-sided.
Falayi said, “But if it is true he
(Buratai) has stolen money or that he partook in the mismanagement of
the arms funds, there should no reason why he should be exempted from
being probe.
“He should be invited for probe if he
has stolen, but if it is found that he has not stolen any money, he
should be allowed to continue with his work.”
On the allegation that Buratai’s total
emoluments since he was commissioned in the Army could not support the
mansions he bought in Dubai, Falayi said, “Buratai should be able to
explain how he got the money with which he bought the properties. I have
nothing against that; he should be made to explain the source of the
money. All I know is that I support President Buhari’s war against
corruption, but the war should be total; nobody suspected to have stolen
public money should be exempted from probe.”
Another retired military officer, Col.
Tony Nyiam, who commended Buhari for creating the condition engendering
the probing of departments of the Federal Government used to be treated
as “sacred cows”, however, said it would be unfair to leave out Buratai
from the probe.
“The Director of Procurement within the
period being investigated should certainly be asked to help enquiry or
be called in as a witness to give more information or as someone whom
the allegations against him should be checked. In other words, the probe
has to involve him.
“The President has an opportunity to
show that his war against corruption is not biased because there are so
many allegations in the air.”
In the same vein, a former military
administrator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, faulted how Buhari
is handling the allegations against Buratai.
“There is no doubt that the
anti-corruption war is a one-sided campaign, but even beyond that, there
is the issue of lopsided appointments and nepotism in Buhari’s
government,” he said.
A former Commissioner of Police in Lagos
State, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, who also described the source of Buratai’s
wealth as unexplained, asked that the army chief should be probed.
Tsav said the impression given by
Buhari’s government so far showed that the administration had been using
double standard on the anti-corruption issue.
He said, “People are saying that Buratai
declared his assets with the Code of Conduct Bureau, but even if he
did, how did he get the whopping sum of money to acquire the property in
Dubai? How much does he earn in a year?
“These things are unreasonable; the government is giving the impression that it is being partisan and taking sides.
“He (Buratai) should be investigated. If
Minimah and Ihejirika will be investigated, Buratai should also be
investigated so that we can know the truth. And if the government knows
what we don’t know, it should lay it bare to members of the public so
that it will be left to the court of public opinion to recommend to the
government but taking sides is not good enough.
“If a President comes to serve, he takes
the oath that he is going to be fair to all manners of people, so he
should be fair to all manner of people. The government said it found
huge funds in the farm of a person but it has not told us whose farm it
is. We want to know. Is the man a soldier or a politician?”
Recently, an editorial of July 10 edition of Sunday PUNCH, had described the situation as “a major credibility test for the President’s campaign against corruption.”
It said, “President Muhammadu Buhari’s
fledgling war on corruption has reached a critical juncture. In a case
that has generated outrage, the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, has
been accused of buying two houses in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, at a
cost of $1.5m.
“Curiously, the Nigerian Army has
admitted that Buratai, indeed, owns the assets, saying, however, that he
bought them with his savings in 2013.”
But some of the retired military officers, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH
officers and some online commentators, have also questioned the
exclusion of the Minister of Interior, Lt. -Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau
(retd.), from the list of persons to be probed.
According to Nyiam, who called on Buhari
to probe all persons in his government with corruption allegations
against them, “many of the contracts being looked at had their genesis
in the period that Dambazau was Chief of Army Staff.”
He said, “So as to avoid accusations of
double standard, the period when President Umaru Yar’Adua was ill should
be looked into because there was much stealing and corruption as the
Commander-in-Chief was not well.
“If not added, it would make the fight
against corruption questionable and it will make it look one-sided. It
will be as if it is only the Chiefs of Army Staff from the South that
are being probed.”
Also, on the PUNCH website,
some of the comments trailing the report: ‘Arms scandal: Buhari orders
probe of Ihejirika, Minimah, 52 others’, accused the Federal Government
of bias by leaving out Buratai and Dambazau in the names of people to be
probed over the arms scandal.
A commentator, General Sam Bockerie,
said,“So how did Lt. General Abdulrahman Dambazau become the only former
Chief of Army Staff who has no explanation to do? What did he do
differently? Or was he left off the hook because he is a northerner?
“Where is Colonel Jafaru Isa that was
arrested and released on the grounds that he refunded some National
Security Adviser office’s funds? Didn’t former Chief of Air Staff, Air
Marshal Adesola Amosu (retd.) – a Yoruba man, also refund money? Why is
Amosu being prosecuted while Jafaru is walking around a free man? Your
guess is as good as mine! What about Tukur Buratai that ‘saved’ so
handsomely to buy foreign properties in his wife’s name? Anti-corruption
war indeed!”
Anti-graft war should not be sectional – Afenifere
A socio-political organisation,
Afenifere, on Friday deplored the non-inclusion of Dambazau and Buratai
in the arms scam report released on Thursday.
Afenifere said the non-inclusion of the
two Generals gave an impression that President Muhammadu Buhari’s
anti-graft war was sectional.
Secretary of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, said the duo should be investigated
“If there are allegations against
Buratai and Dambazau, they should be investigated alongside their
colleagues so that the impression is not created that we have unequal
justice.”
Also, a Second Republic member of the
House of Representatives, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, has said that Danbazau
and Buratai cannot be exempted from the arms purchase probe.
Mohammed spoke in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents on Friday.
He said, “I still believe that it will
be gross injustice for Danbazau and Buratai to be left out of the list
of those to be probed.
“Gen. Buhari himself said anyone that
owns property in Dubai and Abuja must be investigated. Everybody knows
that Buratai owns property in both Dubai and Abuja on that count alone,
Buratai ought not to be left out of the list.”
Anti-graft fight non-discriminatory -FG
The Federal Government said there was no
truth in the insinuation that the report of the Presidential Committee
on the Audit of Defence Equipment Procurement was doctored.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Friday
by his Special Adviser, Mr. Segun Adeyemi, the Minister of Information
and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said what had been released so far was
the report of the audit covering the period 2011 to 2015.
He added that the committee would
commence the audit of procurement from 2007 to 2010 as soon as the
necessary documents were available.
The minister said, ‘’When the documents
regarding procurement from 2007 to 2010 are available and scrutinised,
the committee will then issue its report on that. The audit is being
done on phases, and the report that was released on Thursday is the
third of such.’’
He stated that the Federal Government’s anti-corruption fight was non-discriminatory.
He said, ‘’No one should attempt to
distract from the seriousness of the issues involved in this audit of
defence equipment procurement. It is important to note that even though
the total amount spent for procurement and operations within the period
were N185,843,052,564.30 and $685,349,692.49, the irregularities in the
awards ensured that the military did not get value for money, with very
serious consequences.’’
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