12th March, 2021
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
National Security Adviser, NSA, Babagana Monguno has backtracked on comment that billions of naira meant to procure arms in the fight against insurgency were missing under ex-service chiefs.
In an interview with BBC Hausa Services, Monguno had said “No one knows what happened to the money, but God willing, the president will investigate to find out where it went or where the goods went.”
Monguno stated that as long as long as there was no proper investigation, he would not say anything, it said “the money is gone.”
The NSA added that the new security chiefs said they had not seen the arms purchased with the money either.
But, Monguno, in a statement on Friday said he was misquoted in the BBC Hausa Services interview.
According to the statement, the NSA was quoted out of context as he did not categorically say that funds meant for arms procurement were missing under the former Service Chiefs as reported or transcribed by some media outlets from the BBC interview.
It added that during the interview, the National Security Adviser only reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to deal decisively with insecurity and stated President Muhammadu Buhari’s continued commitment to provide all necessary support to the Armed Forces, including the provision of arms and equipment.
The statement said what Monguno told the BBC was that the President had provided enormous resources for arms procurement, but that the orders were either inadequate or yet to be delivered and that it did not imply that the funds were misappropriated under the former Service Chiefs.
The statement further added that what the NSA said was that the President was following up on the procurement process as was usual with contracts relating to military equipment, and that in most cases, the process involved manufacturing, due diligence and tedious negotiations that might change delivery dates.