Defence contracts: Group alleges cover up, laments inconclusive 2007-2010 report

7 years ago

Defence contracts: Group alleges cover up, laments inconclusive 2007-2010 report

A group, Probity Watch in Defence Institutions (PWDI) at the weekend expressed concern over two statements released last week by government on its approval of further investigations and possible prosecution of two, out of the three Army Chiefs between 2007 and 2015.
PWDI is a group of Civil Society Organizations, retired members of the Armed Forces and other stakeholders.

A statement by the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, had noted that: “Among those to be investigated are 18 serving and retired military personnel, 12 serving and retired public officials and 24 Chief Executive Officers of Companies involved in the procurement. All were either accounting officers or played key roles in the Nigerian Army procurement activities during the period under review.

“Those listed for further investigation include two former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. O.A. Ihejirika (Rtd) and Lt.-Gen. K.T.J. Minimah (Rtd)” and others, and that “according to the Committee, the total amount spent for procurement and operations within the period were N185,843,052,564.30 and $685,349,692.49.”

Querying the exclusion of ex-Chief of Army Staff, General Abdulrahman Dambazzau, who preceded the duo, the group in a statement signed by Danladi Abbas, quoted the Minister as further clarifying that “what has been released so far is the report of the audit covering the period 2011 to 2015, adding that the Committee would commence the audit of procurement from 2007 to 2010 as soon as the necessary documents are available.

”When the documents regarding procurement from 2007 to 2010 are available and scrutinized, 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.”

Reacting, the group said from the dust raised by his vague statement on the “inconclusive report”, the Minister of Information came out with a feeble defence the following day that “there is no truth in the insinuation that the report of the Presidential Committee on the Audit of Defence Equipment Procurement in the Armed Forces (2007-2015) was doctored for whatever reason.”

Continuing it said, “Questions that readily come with this addendum to his previous statement are: what manners of documentations are done in our Defence sector? Is it that hard or soft copies of procurement documents of 2007 – 2010 are “not available” one year after a panel was set up to look at and scrutinize them? What procedures were deployed to get the 2010 – 2015 documents that couldn’t be applied for the preceding years?

“How does it portray us to the world that Nigeria cannot keep and retrieve a seven-year old record in its defence system and still struggling to locate and collate them one year after it embarked on a search? Lai Mohammed’s follow-up statement, apparently an afterthought and perhaps unknown to him, has dimmed the pride of our soldiers, portraying them as untidy, lackadaisical and careless. This is certainly not true of them.

“General Abdulrahman Dambazzau took over from General Luka Yusuf in 2008 and left in September 2010. Are we saying that during his almost three years as Chief of Army Staff, documentations were neither properly done nor well preserved(when done)? Or that nothing was procured ? If things were bought, were they done verbally? That itself would be a malfeasance. Were they eaten up by Wharf rats or consumed by unrecorded inferno?

“We are aware that the report presented to the President for approval was a summary distilled from an enlarged report. We challenge the Minister of Information to publish that volume and its appendix.

“The irony is that Generals Azubuike Ihejirika and Kenneth Minimah have in between them over 30 items of misdemeanors slammed against them, ranging from alleged ‘misappropriation, misapplication and negligence’. What about all the petitions that were written, sent in and acknowledged about this 2008/2010 regime at the Army headquarters. We are aware there were about 26 petitions last year alone.

“We are not talking about those preceding that period, those written against him immediately he left office. From this Interim Report on the Army seen so far, nobody is sticking his neck out stoutly defending the immediate past two Chiefs as they would have their days either with the post fact- finding investigators or possibly the court to defend themselves on these allegations.

“Recall that in setting up the 13-member panel last year, the President’s spokesman Femi Adesina listed among others that ‘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.’

“Accordingly, the latitude of this mandate is enough to catch the smallest fish in the water. The books and equipment are there. They should go back and look at them. Nobody is prompting them to manufacture sins but the sins of those three years are certainly there.

“It is beginning to look like once one takes up an appointment, he acquires immunity from probe and prosecution. Some former governors who are now ministers were petitioned but they have not been known or seen to have been investigated. A sitting Service Chief was quickly cleared by the Defence Minister hours after an online publication ran a story on acquisition of property outside the country.

“More bizarre was the clearance by the Code of Conduct Bureau, an agency that has never before now honoured any inquiry directly or through the Freedom of Information Act. And now this. Is this regime shielding its Army Chief, Interior Minister, and others from scrutiny on alleged corruption and other infractions?”