House Of Reps To Probe Buhari’s Arms Panel

THE House of Representatives on Thursday raised a committee to probe the Committee on Audit of Defence Equipment Procurement in the Nigerian Armed Forces inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The House, in a motion by Chris Azubogu, said the arms panel, which had only three months to conclude its assignment, has failed to complete its work more than a year later.

Lawmakers said the committee members requested a two-week extension, but still did not conclude its task, leaving the government to continue to pay for their feeding and accommodation.

This situation, the House said, had led to the failure of the federal government to pay arms contractors for their work.

Mr. Buhari had on August 24, 2015, raised the panel to keep with his “determination to stamp out corruption and irregularities in Nigeria’s public service”.

The committee has so far released three interim reports, with the last published in July.

The report indicted a former Chief of Army Staff, Azubuike Ihejirika, of using companies linked to his family to perpetrate arms procurement fraud.
Mr. Ihejirika denied the allegations.

The House forwarded the concerns to its committee on national security and intelligence for further investigation and to report back within a month.

[NAN]