Nigeria Rejects US Conditions For Sale Of Fighter Jets

The Federal Government says it will “not accept” the conditions given by the United States for the sale of 12 Embraer A-29 Super Tucano aircrafts worth $494 million to the country.

Briefing state house correspondents on the outcome of the security council meeting on Thursday, Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, said part of the conditions is that the sale will not be made until 2020.

Explaining further, the minister said United States does not want Nigerian technicians as part of the production inspection, and would not be trained by the US.

He said the federal government will hold further talks with the US ambassador on the matter.

Dan-Ali said: “These conditions, we will not accept… They are also thinking of not allowing our technicians to be part of the production inspection.

“But this is what we normally do in all the defence contracts, we send our personnel to go and understudy, especially when it comes to specialized aircrafts like in Russia, our personnel are permanently based in where the production is being done for this MI35 helicopters.”

“Payments will be made when the conditions are reduced,” he added.

Recall that U.S President Donald Trump had months back approved the sale of the warplanes to Nigeria.

Officials of the Trump administration who revealed this said that this was done in other to strengthen Nigeria’s fire power against Boko Haram and other extremists.