Arms Fund: Presidency says no money is missing, explains how $1bn was spent

Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity has stated that the arms fund given to former service chiefs can be accounted for.

This follows a recent statement by the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno that arms fund given to the immediate past service chiefs was missing. Monguno afterwards clarified that he was misquoted.

Reacting to this, the Presidential aide noted that the procurements made have not been fully delivered and about $536 million of the money was paid directly in a government-to-government transaction with the United States government.

“In August 2018, they (the US) allowed the Nigerian Government to buy 12 Super Tucano aircraft suitable for the kind of war we are fighting in the North East. In addition to that, other arms of the military have also made procurements.

“The Nigerian Navy has done nearly 100 per cent of their procurements equipment delivered; the Nigerian Air Force has bought a number of attack helicopters – 35 i-helicopters from Ukraine,” the presidential aide outlined.

He, however, stated that there have been problems with the procurements made by the Nigerian Army, stressing that the equipment have been coming in bits and in pieces.