former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki diverted funds meant to equip the military through fictitious contracts.
The special adviser to the president on media and publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina said the findings made so far in the report are extremely worrying, considering the fact that the intervention funds were granted within the same period that Nigerian troops fighting the insurgency in the North East were in desperate need of platforms, military equipment and ammunition.
Adesina who stated this immediately after President Muhammadu Buhari received the report of the 13 man committee and its interim report, which unearthed several illicit and fraudulent financial transactions announced that the report indicted the NSA former NSA as complicit in the illegal and financial transactions.
Consequently, he said President Buhari has ordered for Dasuki’s arrest and all individuals who have been found complicit in the illegal and fraudulent acts.
In a statement he issued to this effect, Adesina stated that as part of the findings, the committee analyzed interventions from some organizations that provided funds to the Office of the NSA, Defence Headquarters, Army Headquarters, Naval Headquarters and Nigerian Air Force Headquarters, both in local and foreign currencies.
The presidential spokesman said, “So far, the total extra budgetary interventions articulated by the committee is Six Hundred and Forty Three Billion, Eight Hundred and Seventeen Million, Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand, Eight Hundred and Eighty Five Hundred Naira and Eighteen Kobo (N643,817,955,885.18).
“The foreign currency component is to the tune of Two Billion, One Hundred and Ninety Three Million, Eight Hundred and Fifteen Thousand US Dollars and Eighty Three Cents ($2,193,815,000.83).
Adesina noted that these amounts exclude grants from the State Governments and funds collected by the DSS and Police. He also observed that in spite of this huge financial intervention, very little was expended to support defense procurement.
“The committee also observed that of 513 contracts awarded at $8,356,525,184.32; N2,189,265,724,404.55 and €54,000.00; Fifty Three (53) were failed contracts amounting to $2,378,939,066.27 andN13,729,342,329.87 respectively”, he added.
He also noted that the amount of foreign currency spent on failed contracts was more than double the $1bn loan that the National Assembly approved for borrowing to fight the insurgency in the North East.
“The committee also discovered that payments to the tune of Three Billion, Eight Hundred and Fifty Million Naira (N3,850,000,000.00) were made to a single company by the former NSA without documented evidence of contractual agreements or fulfilment of tax obligations to the FGN”, he stated.
He said further findings revealed that between March 2012 and March 2015, the erstwhile NSA, Lt Col MS Dasuki (rtd) awarded fictitious and phantom contracts to the tune of N2,219,188,609.50, $1,671,742,613.58 and €9,905,477.00.
According to Adesina, the contracts which were said to be for the purchase of 4 Alpha Jets, 12 helicopters, bombs and ammunition were not executed and the equipment were never supplied to the Nigerian Air Force, neither are they in its inventory.
Enough Of This Vendetta, Let’s Meet In Court!
He also alleged that some of the key actors in the Buhari administration were part of the past process they were persecuting him for.But in his reaction to the president’s directive for his arrest, Dasuki dismissed all the allegations with a wave of hand, just as he challenged the presidency to confront him with the allegations in courts.
Insisting that his hands were clean and that he was ready to prove his innocence in court, the former NSA named some service chiefs as his witnesses and cited some dated documents to back up his defence.
He said, “In order not to endanger the nation’s security, there are many salient issues and contracts which I cannot put in public domain. I am ready for trial on all these allegations in order to prove to Nigerians that I did nothing untoward in office. We will certainly meet in court.
“I have a lot to tell Nigerians but, in the interim, they should not believe some of the allegations as the gospel truths. The good thing is that some of the key actors in the present administration were part of the past process this is being viciously challenged”
In a statement personally signed by him, the embattled former service chief explained the role played by his office in every purchase under his watch.
He said, “Nigerians should note that all the Services generated the types of equipment needed, sourced for suppliers most times and, after consideration by the Office of the NSA, the president will approve application for payment.
“For sensitive sectors (military/security), there was no room for awarding fictitious contracts. The conclusions of the panel were presumptive, baseless and lacked diligence. There were no fictitious contracts; contract sums were not diverted and the relevant Services acknowledged, in writing, the delivery of equipment. For all procurements, the Nigerian Army, the Air Force and the Nigerian Navy have their contractors”.
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