Popular human rights lawyer, Femi Falana SAN, has slammed Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu over claim that money cannot be diverted under the Buhari administration.
Garba in a statement defending the Presidency following NSA Monguno's interview were he disclosed that funds meant for the purchase of weapons for the military were yet to be accounted for, Shehu said, “People are just been political, they want to draw moral equivalent between the PDP and the APC administrations – we are not the same, things like this cannot happen under a Buhari administrations.”
Babagana Monguno had said, "The President approved the release of $1 billion for the purchase of weapons to fight Boko Haram and other security challenges. So far, I have seen nothing on ground and the new service chiefs also said they have not seen new weapons. May be they are still underway, but so far nothing on ground."
“No one knows what happened to the money but by God’s grace, the president will investigate to find out whether the money was spent and where the arms went.”
“The president has made tremendous efforts to provide the huge funding but the arms were not procured, the arms were not enough. This is the reason why even though he brought in some new people (service chiefs), may be they will devise an alternative method, and I am not saying that those former service chiefs that retired have embezzled the money. This is not what I meant but maybe the money has gone through another means that I don’t know and nobody else knows right now,” the NSA added.
But in response to Garba Shehu's statement, Falana said funds are being diverted everyday under the Buhari administration, making Garba's claims an attempt to take Nigerians for granted.
He however, charged the Federal Government to launch an investigation into the allegations by Monguno ,saying his statement was clear enough, with no basis whatsoever, to deny or claim he was misinterpreted.
He said that FG must invite the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to handle the probe.
“With respect to the Armed Forces under the Buhari administration, apart from the annual budget of the Ministry of Defence, a special allocation is set aside for the procurement of arms and ammunition for the Armed Forces.
“The National Security Adviser, General Babagana Monguno did say last week that the equipment procured could not be located.
“Notwithstanding the denial later, if you read the transcribed version of the interview, you will agree with me that it was very clear that there was no basis for his denial or misinterpretation.
“In other words, the $1 billion appropriated for the procurement of arms and ammunition will have to be accounted for, otherwise, the commitment of the Federal Government to the security of the country will have to be questioned.
“It’s not enough to say that under the Buhari administration, money cannot be diverted. Money is being diverted on a daily basis by some unpatriotic elements.
“What I expect the government to do is to invite the EFCC to investigate what has been bought with the $1billion special allocation,” Falana said.