the immediate past service chiefs misappropriated over N600 Billion meant for purchase of high-tech military equipment.
The former Service chiefs who supervised the looting were, Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin; Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas; and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar.
These corrupt top military brass who are now ambassador-designates, squandered approximately N600billion meant for operations and allowances of personnel between 2015 and 2021, according to Pointblanknews.com investigations.
Olonisakin, Buratai, Ibas and Abubakar collected N30billion quarterly from 2015 to 2021 to pay for operations and allowances to personnel but cannot give adequate account how the funds were spent.
Available records of arms, ammunition and other military hardware showed that much of the cash may have gone into private pockets.
Some governors, according to our sources, are in support of the initial position of the current NSA, Babagana Monguno, who raised the alarm over nonexistent military equipment despite huge amounts allocated.
They believe that Buhari has funded the military well enough, but for the corruption at the top.
Pointblanknews.com investigations revealed that while a battalion is made up about 850-1000 soldiers, Nigeria military has a battalion made up of only about 250 soldiers.
The sacked the service chiefs were alleged to have collected N30billion quarterly to cover operations and allowances for 850 soldiers when in fact only about 200-250 soldiers are in a battalion in the Nigerian military. Currently, there are no adequate military equipment on ground as the military can only boast of three High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled (Humvee) trucks.
“This why our soldiers are being killed everyday because we don’t have Humvees. Can you imagine that out of the many battalions, only about two humvees are operational? Those high powered vehicles help shield Soldiers from bomb attacks but we don’t have them,” a recently retired senior military official told Pointblanknews.com
According to sources, the chief enabler of the ex-service chiefs was the late chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari. Kyari, it was learnt, used middlemen to broker shady defense contract deals. The former chief of staff singlehandedly ignored the bilateral agreement Nigeria had with Russia on defense and opted to use middlemen in new deals with some defense firms in China.
Sources told Pointblanknews.com that one Aboubacar Hima, a Nigerien, with no previous experience in the defense sector was used by the late Kyari as the middleman for all Military contracts in Nigeria.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had accused Hima of series fraud to the tune of over 394 million dollars, 9.9 million pounds and N369 million.
While in Niger Republic, Hima is accused of looting Military Aid Money.
Specifically, an Inspector General auditor’s report in Niger said Hima was a part of the corruption were $137million was lost through overpricing of Military equipments from Russia, Ukraine and China.
“That is the same person the cabal led by Abba Kyari brought to Nigeria and supplied inferior equipment and inflated most of the military contracts,” sources confirmed this
Security sources revealed that the ex-service chiefs did not act within the limits and discipline of military rules. They referred to strings of meetings they held with late Kyari which set that stage for misappropriation of funds.
Sequel to the nefarious meetings between Kyari and the service chiefs behind Monguno’s back, the NSA had written to Buhari to protest the behavior. In the 2019 letter titled ‘Disruption of the National Security Framework by Unwarranted Meddlesomeness’, Monguno questioned the rational of Kyari convening security meetings and summoning the security chiefs as well as diplomats. He said “…the chief of staff to the president is not a presiding head of security, neither is he sworn to an oath of defending the country.”
It was gathered that the new service chiefs confided in some governors that they met no modern weapons on ground and that these weapons are needed urgently to win the war on terror.
Sources also hinted that the Personal Assistant to Buhari, and protegee of late Kyari, Tunde Sabiu Yusuf, is also one of the brains behind the nefarious deals at the defense ministry, as he has consistently tried to undermine the current NSA, Monguno. Monguno recently raised alarm over the disappearance of huge defense funds but quickly recanted.
Monguno, a retired major general, revealed during a BBC interview that neither the money nor the arms were on ground upon resumption of the new service chiefs. He also said he was not accusing the former service chiefs but insisted nobody has the information about the whereabouts of the billions budgeted for the procurement of arms.
He said “The President will surely probe this matter. As we speak, the Nigerian Governors forum too is also wondering where all the money went…the fact is that preliminary investigation showed the funds are missing and the equipment is nowhere to be found”.
The NSA’s curious recant came in a statement from the office of the NSA. It said, “In the interview the National Security Adviser clearly informed the BBC reporter that Mr. President has provided enormous resources for arms procurement, but the orders were either inadequate or yet to be delivered and that did not imply that the funds were misappropriated under the former Service Chiefs.”
In February last year, the NSA and the immediate past Army chief, Buratai, had a major face off when the former took sides with Kyari to humiliate the NSA. Buratai at the time, ordered the withdrawal of top army officers attached to the office of the NSA without replacements.
The NSA rejected the entire exercise as a charade upon his return from an assignment abroad and ordered the personnel to disregard Buratai’s directive and remain in place. Buratai ignored him.