President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the arrest of former National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd) and other unnamed government officials over armed procurement contracts running into billions of dollars. Presidency sources said that some former service chiefs and ex-ministers of defence may also be arrested over the presidential directive.
The directive by the president followed yesterday’s submission of an interim report by a 13-man committee which he set up in August to audit the procurement of arms and equipment in the Armed Forces and Defence sector from 2007 to date. “In light of these findings, President Buhari has directed that the relevant organisations arrest and bring to book, all individuals who have been found complicit in these illegal and fraudulent acts,” Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Femi Adesina, said in a statement last night.
The committee is headed by the present NSA, Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd). Adesina said: “While the committee which was inaugurated on August 31, 2015 is yet to complete its work, its interim report has unearthed several illicit and fraudulent financial transactions. “As part of the findings, the committee has analysed interventions from some organisations that provided funds to the Office of the National Security Adviser, Defence Headquarters, Army Headquarters Naval Headquarters and Nigerian Air Force Headquarters, both in local and foreign currencies.”
“These amounts exclude grants from the state governments and funds collected by the Department of State Services (DSS) and Police. It was observed that in spite of this huge financial intervention, very little was expended to support defense procurement.”
Adesina explained that the committee also observed that out of 513 contracts awarded at $8,356,525,184.32; N2,189,265,724,404.55 and €54,000.00; 53 were failed contracts amounting to $2,378,939,066.27 and N13,729,342,329.87 respectively. Interestingly, the president’s aide said, it was noted that the amount of foreign currency spent on failed contracts was more than double the $1 billion loan that the National Assembly approved for borrowing to fight the insurgency in the North-East. The committee also discovered that payments to the tune of N3,850,000,000 were made to a single company by the former NSA without documented evidence of contractual agreements or fulfilment of tax obligations to the Federal Government.
Further findings by the committee, according to the Presidency, revealed that between March 2012 and March 2015, Dasuki awarded fictitious and phantom contracts to the tune of N2,219,188,609.50, $1,671,742,613.58 and €9,905,477.00. The contracts which were said to be for the purchase of four Alpha Jets,12 helicopters, bombs and ammunition were not executed and the equipment were never supplied to the Nigerian Air Force, neither are they in its inventory.
The presidential spokesman said: “Even more disturbing was the discovery that out of these figures, two companies, were awarded contracts to the tune of N350,000,000, $1,661,670,469.71 and €9,905,477.00 alone. This was without prejudice to the consistent non-performance of the companies in the previous contracts awarded.
“Additionally, it was discovered that the former NSA directed the Central Bank of Nigeria to transfer the sum of $132,050,486.97 and €9,905,473.55 to the accounts of Societe D’equipmente Internationaux in West Africa, United Kingdom and United States of America for un-ascertained purposes, without any contract documents to explain the transactions.
“The findings made so far are extremely worrying considering that the interventions were granted within the same period that our troops fighting the insurgency in the North-East were in desperate need of platforms, military equipment and ammunition. Had the funds siphoned to these non-performing companies been properly used for the purpose they were meant for, thousands of needless Nigerian deaths would have been avoided.
“Furthermore, the ridicule Nigeria has faced in the international community would have been avoided. It is worrisome and disappointing that those entrusted with the security of this great nation were busy using proxies to siphon the national treasury, while innocent lives were wasted daily.”
Before the committee’s report, Dasuki had been under investigation for alleged illegal arms possession but has since been granted bail by the court. But the DSS has laid siege to his Asokoro, Abuja residence preventing him from travelling abroad for medical checkup. The Secret Service justified the siege. It stated that Dasuki has refused to honour the invitation of the committee probing the arms procurement.
