Buhari fighting insurgency with arms I bought—Jonathan
Says PDP’ll bounce back.
Jonathan bought junk weapons—Presidency
Says PDP’ll bounce back.
Jonathan bought junk weapons—Presidency
By Soni Daniel, Kingsley Omonobi, Clifford
Ndujihe & Dapo Akinrefon
ABUJA—Following his alleged
indictment in the N29 billion arms probe, former Chief of Air Staff, Air
Marshall Adesola Amosu, was, Wednesday, invited by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, grilled on his role and detained because all
issues pertaining to his alleged indictment were not concluded.
This came as former President, Dr. Goodluck
Jonathan, said President Muhammadu Buhari’s government was prosecuting the war
against the Boko Haram insurgency with arms his administration procured.
Operatives of the EFCC were said to have
continued the interrogation of the former Air Chief, yesterday, at EFCC
headquarters and at press time, Amosu was still with the anti-graft agency.
FILE:Air Marshal Adeso
Sources disclosed that Air Marshal Amosu arrived
EFCC premises in the evening of Wednesday, but was later joined by some other
officers of the ranks of Air Vice-Marshals, some of who served under him as
Principal Staff Officers or Directors at the Headquarters of the Nigerian
Air Force.
Asked if the former Air Chief will be granted
administrative bail since he honoured his invitation, a source said that
depended on the level of the interrogation.
NAF under Amosun, was alleged to have admitted
receiving non-existent ammunition and aircraft, a development which a
presidential panel frowned at.
President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the probe of
arms procurement and the panel indicted top military and political actors who
are being tried in court.
Many other top military officers named in the
arms scam have had their property sealed as a first step towards confiscating
them.
Efforts to get the spokesman of EFCC, Wilson
Uwujaren to confirm the interrogation of the former Air Chief proved abortive.
Buhari fighting insurgency with arms I
bought — Jonathan
Meanwhile, former President Goodluck Jonathan,
has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government was prosecuting the war
against the Boko Haram insurgency with the arms his administration procured.
Insisting that he laid a solid foundation for
terrorism to be defeated, Dr Jonathan expressed hope that very soon, the new
government would defeat the insurgency.
Jonathan, who spoke in an interview with France
24 as quoted by The Cable, said that
insurgency caught the country unawares but noted that his government laid a
solid foundation for terrorism to be defeated.
His words: “The new government is working hard
and I believe they are still using the equipment we procured. Though the budget
is still being debated, no new equipment has been bought, so even those
equipment the President is using to prosecute the war against Boko Haram are
those equipment we procured.
“When Boko Haram started in Nigeria, we had no
terror experience. Yes, we had armed robbery and other common crimes, but
terrorism was different because the people involved were not afraid to die. So,
you need a different mechanism to confront terrorism; you need superior
technology to be able to stop them even before they attack. We never had the
equipment, but when we were confronted, we started acquiring and before I left
office, we built reasonable capacity and I believe with what we left behind and
also with what the new government will acquire, they will be able to prosecute
this terror war to a reasonable conclusion.”
PDP ‘ll bounce back
Former President Goodluck Jonathan (L) With President
Muhammadu Buhari, After A Close Door Meeting At The Presidential Villa In Abuja
On Monday (2/11/15).
On the crisis ravaging the Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, Jonathan expressed optimism that the former ruling party would soon
gain stability.
“The PDP definitely will have some minor issues,
it is expected. We lost the presidency and definitely we will have some kind of
leadership problems. When you have a president, everybody looks up to the
president. But when you no longer have the president, it becomes difficult for
the party to have strong leadership. I believe whatever you observe will be
sorted out. Leaders of the party, elders of the party have been meeting and all
the perceived disagreements will soon be sorted out.
“Every political party has misunderstanding, it
is not new, it is always there. From the beginning of PDP, even before I got to
Abuja as a Vice-President and President, there were instances when the chairman
of the party will be asked to step down. And some officers leave from time to
time when there are issues. So what is happening is not new but I promise you
that PDP will stabilize.
“In fact, by March this year, we are going to
elect officers at the lowest levels of the wards to the local government, to
the states, to the zones then of course the national officers will be
elected. So the party will bounce back, whatever you are perceiving, it always
happens and we will get over it,” he said.
Jonathan bought junk weapons—Presidency
Debunking the former President’s claim, the
Presidency, yesterday, maintained that weapons bought by the previous
administration were mostly junk.
In a statement by Senior Special Assistant
to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the presidency
said the former president got his facts mixed up.
The statement read: “We have it on good authority
that the former President did not get the correct briefing on these facts.
Weapons bought by his government were mostly
junk.
“From the revelations of the procurement
investigation committee now going on, it is clear that his government was
ill-advised in its procurement processes.
“Evidence shows that some of his service chiefs
used criminally-minded vendors to defraud the country of billions of Naira.
“For instance, bullion vans, the ones used in
ferrying cash to and from banks were procured and presented in military colours
as armoured personnel carriers. Bullion vans have what the military call “soft
skin,” which is easily penetrated by bullet.
“On good authority, we have equally been informed
that “floatation jackets” were brought in as bullet-proof jackets. If the
correct procurement procedure had been followed, in a government-to- government
order as we now have under the Buhari administration, this disservice to the
nation would not have happened.
“This administration found out, upon
investigation that most of those things the soldiers at the front were
complaining against were true. The personal weapons they were made to carry
were those bought in the 60s, 70s and the 80s.
Those defective weapons are now being replaced
even as investigations are still going on.”
EmoticonEmoticon