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…vow to unearth funds diverted
The army may have swallowed more than it can chew as members of the ad-hoc committee probing arms purchases from 2016 till date declare that all the procurements details are in their domain to unravel the several diversions allegedly made.
The probe of arms deal between 2016 till date may snowball into an earth shaking revelations as Reps vow to unearth all illegal diversions.
In this report, TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) checks reveal that most of the military services are deliberately avoiding the reps panel investigating the matter.
TNG checks revealed that of all the military and paramilitary bodies only three actually showed interest in disclosing procurements of arms and hardware purchased between 2016 till date.
A source privy to this development told TNG that “the Defence headquarters, civil defense and the ministry of interior showed interest so far.
“The Office of the Chief of Army Staff, COAS till now has not written to the committee on why it failed to honor our invitation.
“The Air Force politely wrote to inform us to give them an extension to gather more details on all the information we requested for.
“Civil Defense and its supervisory ministry, Ministry of Interior are co-operative and willing to work with us.
“As at Monday when we had our investigative hearing, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that disbursed the funds refused to turn up.
“We already have enough details of all purchases made since 2016 that $1bn was removed from the Crude Oil Excess Account endorsed by both PDP and APC governors to combat insecurity in Nigeria”.
Another lawmaker who also spoke under the condition of anonymity told TNG: “we only want them to explain how the purchases were made and we will now know where to beam our searchlight.
“What are we asking for? Come and tell us how much we have paid for the purchase of arms; we have given you the right to fair hearing.
“Are you hiding anything? We will not allow it, if there is something you are hiding because you are CBN, we will not allow it.
“People are killed everyday, I want to move a motion because we do not have time; we come here everyday, sit for hours and wait for a government agency”.
At the hearing, Hon Samson Okwu, Benue Reps PDP caucus leader had made it clear that: “new appointment or not the service chiefs have no excuse not to show up to defend what they received.
“They were all theatre commanders at one time or the other so they have no excuse not to tell us what they got and how it was spent”.
In a bid to get to the bottom of the matter, the COAS, CBN were summoned by the panel.