BREAKING: Buratai, Other EX-Military Chiefs Under Investigation Over Missing Arms Fund – NSA

The National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, has revealed that the tenures of the immediate past military Service Chiefs were being investigated to determine the whereabouts of funds earmarked for purchase of arms for the military.

The immediate past Service Chiefs are: General Abayomi Gabriel Olonishakin – Chief of Defence Staff; Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai – Chief of Army Staff; Admiral Ibok-Ete Ebas – Chief of Naval Staff and Air Marshal Abubakar Sadique – Chief of Air Staff.

Monguno disclosed this while responding to a question during an interview with the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation on Friday morning.

The reporter had asked him why the Federal Government was dragging its feet on the issue of arms purchase for troops fighting insurgents and bandits.

But Monguno said President Muhammadu Buhari had released funds for the purchase of new weapons for the military under the immediate past Service Chiefs but that there was no evidence they were purchased.

He said: “The government is not dragging its feet, the president has tried, he had released funds for the purchase but the weapons have not been purchased up till now. Now the President has brought new Service Chiefs and maybe they will find out what has happened to the funds. Because they said they didn’t see where the weapons were purchased.

“I am not saying the former Service Chiefs pocketed the money o. But we don’t know the whereabouts of the funds. The president will investigate the matter. Even the state governors have started asking questions that they gave money here and there and they have not seen the items.

“I cannot say the funds have been embezzled because we don’t have evidence of that, It is possible the items are on their way from overseas, we don’t know. But these are things that the new Service Chiefs would find out.”

Olonishakin and his colleagues were last week cleared by the Senate as ambassadors following their nomination by President Buhari.