$1bn Arms Purchase: Reps Summon CBN Gov, Army Chief
The House of Representatives has summoned the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Ibrahim Attahiru to unfailingly appear before the house latest April 7.
The House ad-hoc committee in charge of reviewing the purchase, use, and control of arms, ammunition, and related hardware by the military in a tweet on Monday said the call became necessary over failure to honour earlier invitation in connection with $1 billion approved by the federal government for the arms to fight insurgency.
The committee noted that the money had been approved and released during the tenure of the immediate past service chiefs, but had rumours that the money can not be traced.
The tweet stated that the House of Representatives had earlier invited Mr Emefiele, the COAS, several other security agency heads and ministries to appear on Monday, March 22.
But, Mr Emefiele and the army chief who were to lead in addressing the committee on Monday, did not show up.
In April 2018, the immediate past Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, announced that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the release of $1 billion for the purchase of arms to fight insurgency in Nigeria.
National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Major General Babagana Monguno, in an interview with BBC Hausa said the $1billion meant for the purchase of arms was diverted, Peoples Gazette reported.
Mr Monguno had debunked the statement, saying he was quoted out of context, The Gazette also reported.
