Former Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai (Rtd) has said he never frittered away money meant for arms to fight insurgency.
National Security Adviser, NSA, Babagana Monguno had said in an interview with BBC Hausa Services, that “No one knows what happened to the money, but God willing, the president will investigate to find out where it went or where the goods went.”
Monguno, who had issued a denial that he was misquoted, said as long as long as there was no proper investigation, he would not say anything.
He said “the money is gone.”
The NSA added that the new security chiefs said they had not seen the arms purchased with the money either.
But Buratai, in a statement issued by Osuagwu Ugochukwu , Attorney to the former Chief of Army Staff, said his attention has been drawn to an interview granted BBC by National Security Adviser (NSA) RTD Major General Babagana Monguno wherein he was alleged to have accused former service chiefs of filtering arms Fund away.
“I can confirm that LT General Buratai and other ex-service chiefs were never mentioned in the interview and neither was any arms fund missing under the stewardship of LT Gen T.Y Buratai.
“Interestingly, NSA Babagana Monguno has denied making such accusations. We therefore urge members of the public to discountenance any such misquoted narrative suggesting sleaze on the integrity of RTD LT Gen T.Y Buratai,” he said.
He added that anyone interested in knowing how arms were procured by the ex-service chiefs and particularly LT Gen T.Y Buratai should channel such request for information to the Ministry of Defence and stop the habit of speculation and false information peddling.
“Because any attempt to further tarnish the image of the former Chief of Army staff will be resisted legally,” he said.
