The National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (Rtd) has denied saying that there was no evidence of the huge funds voted for procurement of arms under the immediate past Service Chiefs.
He had in an interview with BBC Hausa service on Friday said although President Muhammadu Buhari approved a huge amount of money for arms, the new service chiefs did not see any new weapon when they arrived.
“It is not that we are not working to end the security challenge in the country. The president has done his own part and allocated huge amount of money to purchase weapons but they are yet to be here. We don’t know where they are. I am not saying that the past Service Chiefs have diverted the money, but presently we don’t know where the money is,” he had said.
However in a press statement from his office late Friday, Monguno claimed he was quoted out of context by the press.
“The attention of the Office of the National Security Adviser has been drawn to some media reports regarding Armed Forces equipment during an interview with the BBC Hausa service.
“We would like to state that the NSA was quoted out of context as he did not categorically say that funds meant for arms procurement were missing under the Former Service Chiefs as reported or transcribed by some media outlets from the BBC interview” the statement said.
It added that the National Security Adviser clearly informed the BBC reporter that Mr President had provided enormous resources for arms procurement, but the orders were either inadequate or yet to be delivered, noting that that did not imply that the funds were misappropriated under the former Service Chiefs.
“The NSA also informed the reporter that, Mr President is following up on the procurement process as is usual with contracts relating to military equipment, in most cases the process involves manufacturing, due diligence and tedious negotiations that may change delivery dates.”
“All Security and Intelligence agencies are working together to bring an end to insecurity with the full support of Mr. President and Stakeholders including the media and civil society as part of a whole-of-government and a whole-of-society approach to address our security challenges.”
