Transparency International and the Campaign for Democracy have asked the Federal Government to investigate the huge funds voted for military arms and ammunition, particularly for the anti-insurgency war in the North-East.
They said the huge amount budgeted for the military to prosecute the war had yet to yield any positive result.
TI said on Sunday the escalating terror attacks on military bases showed there was a “huge defence corruption” in the system that needed to be urgently looked into.
The TI Head in Nigeria, Mr Musa Rafsanjani, said in an interview with one of our correspondents that despite the huge budgetary allocations and other funds voted to fight insurgency in the North-East, all were not yielding the desired results because of “defence corruption.”
He said, “The resurrection of attacks by the insurgents in the country is a very sad and unfortunate development. This is at a time when the government had repeatedly informed the whole world that the terrorists had been technically defeated. Secondly, it is so unfortunate that the huge amounts of resources to procure ammunition and motivate the troops have not yielded many results, if any.
“This shows there is institutionalisation of defence corruption. Nigeria has been facing serious defence corruption. This is the only reason why money meant to procure military equipment is not accounted for or visible in the war. It appears that nothing has changed from what has happened in the past in terms of military corruption.”
Also, the CD President, Usman Abdul, said the civil society had repeatedly been against the extension of tenures of the service chiefs by the President, saying there was much corruption in the military.
He said, “What is happening in the North-East is sad and it is part of the official corruption in this administration that led to such failures. The mass killings of our soldiers by terrorists are unwarranted. Large chunks of money were released for military arms and ammunition; but the money is unaccounted for.
“Today, the money meant for armaments was doled out by the government, but the soldiers meant to defend the territorial sovereignty of the country are falling dead every day due to poor weapons.
“This is why the civil society groups have repeatedly been against the extension of tenures of the service chiefs by the President.
“So, we ask the Federal Government to disclose how it spent the money voted for military arms and ammunition. This was what happened in the last administration and it is repeating itself.”
Coalition of political parties call for sacking of service chiefs
In its reaction, the Coalition of United Political Parties said in a statement by its spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere, that it regretted that the incident happened on the same day some service chiefs attended a political function organised by the ruling All Progressives Congress at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Ugochinyere said it was obvious the service chiefs were out of communication and beyond the reach of their subordinates and certainly could not give instructions and coordinate backup and air support for the troops who were left to die.
He described the increase in attacks by the Boko Haram and ISWAP on military facilities in the North-East as a national embarrassment.
Ugochinyere called for the immediate sacking of the service chiefs.
He said, “From the attack in Jili in July where we reportedly lost over 200 soldiers to Zari in August, Mainok and Kekeno and now Metele, this is one attack too many.
“This is a national disgrace, especially with the loud mouthing of an outgoing regime which had claimed the group was degraded and technically defeated after alleged misappropriation of billions of dollars.
“CUPP is shocked also by the dishonourable silence of the Federal Government on the attacks which only became prominent on the social media after the terrorist group released very gory videos of some of these attacks.
“For President Buhari to only summon service chiefs for a briefing five days after such a calamity clearly shows the slow response time of this administration to national emergencies and the lack of capacity to meet up with the fast pace of developments which affect the lives of citizens.
“We hereby call on President Buhari to salvage the last vestiges of honour left for his regime by immediately sacking the service chiefs, the Inspector-General of Police, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Comptroller General of Customs who have at one time or the other been found playing politics with their offices instead of doing their jobs with every sense of neutrality.”
Ugochinyere alleged that heads of security agencies in Nigeria had become more interested in obtaining intelligence on the meetings of opposition leaders than on the activities of Boko Haram.
He added, “The police and State Security Services are now more interested in hounding and intimidating opposition leaders and activists than they are in identifying and neutralising the activities of the terrorist group.
“Boko Haram is now allegedly expanding their territory even beyond the territories they held in 2014 before they were pushed back just before the 2015 general elections.
“The ugly report that the fallen Metele military camp is the last camp in the entire Northern District of Borno State raises a red flag and calls for concerted action to reverse it.”
It described as appalling and sacrilegious that months after President Buhari received $1bn to fight Boko Haram, videos supposedly released by soldiers on the front suggest that the soldiers were armed with obsolete weapons.
“We don’t want to believe yet the allegations that security chiefs with the knowledge of their political masters have now turned this war into a source for raising campaign funds.
“The political ambition of the President and indeed any other person is not worth the lives of Nigerians. This ugly trend must stop and it must stop now,” CUPP added.