The National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, has refuted reports that he said money for the purchase of arms for the military was missing under the former service chiefs.
The NSA said he was quoted out of context in the interview with the BBC Hausa service in which he reportedly said that the new service chiefs informed him that they could not find the fund meant for arms.
In a statement on Friday, the retired major-general said, “We would like to state that 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.
“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.”
In the interview, the NSA said he clearly informed the BBC reporter that “Mr President has provided enormous resources for arms procurement, but the orders were either inadequate or yet to be delivered and that did not imply that the funds were misappropriated under the former Service Chiefs.”
The NSA also said he informed the reporter that, “Mr President is following up on the procurement process as is usual with contracts relating to military equipments, in most cases the process involves manufacturing, due diligence and tedious negotiations that may change delivery dates.”
As the NSA, Monguno stated that he conveyed during the Aso Villa media briefing that questions relating to defence procurement should be channelled to the Ministry of Defence.
He added, “All Security and Intelligence agencies are working together to bring an end to insecurity with the full support of Mr President and stakeholders including the media and civil society as part of a whole-of-government and a whole-of-society approach to address our security challenges.”
