By Levinus Nwabughiogu

ABUJA—Presidency last night explained that it disbanded the Presidential Arms Probe Committee because it could no longer sustain its funding after some N600 million was spent on the members.

It also stated that the committee constituted by the National Security Adviser, NSA, Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd) in October 2016 and chaired by Air Vice Marshall John Ode (rtd) was not willing to conclude its work within the period of 90 days as contained in the term of reference.

It stated further that the committee, originally billed to last for 90 days within which to investigate the various arms deal between 2007 and 2015, sat for 13 months and dragged up to 18 months before submitting their report.

A top presidency source which craved anonymity said that it was clear that the federal government could not sustain the funding of the committee and therefore had to disband it.

The source added that the panel at a time veered off from its objective and became “vindictive”, going after former senior Air Force officers including retired Chiefs of Air Staff, unjustly.

“Government paid members of the committee N2 million monthly in addition to other perks. In the 18 months the committee sat, the Federal Government spent well over N600 million for payment of alliances and other ancillary services. The government cannot continue to spend this amount of money on just one committee that refused to conclude its work”.

According to the source, the government consequently handed over the work of the disbanded panel over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, adding that “some of the committee members were enjoying the privileges and became reluctant to end the committee’s work.”

We cannot continue to fund this project, whatever anybody is saying does not make any sense.”

It was learnt that the push given to the committee to conclude its job and halt unnecessary delays caused the members to generate a report “to discredit the NSA and the other top retired military officers”.

The source said: “The government could no longer continue to fund people who were not ready to conclude their work as specified by the terms of reference.

“The establishment of the committee was done with sincere purposes but we didn’t know that some of the committee members would go all out to use it to settle personal vendetta by going after respected retired top air force chiefs including three retired chiefs of air staffs, just to smear their names”.

The source added that the other committee set up by the government to look at contracts in the office of the NSA was diligent with its assignment.

Headed by Major General Bako (rtd), the committee, it was gathered turned in its report after 120 days.

Vanguardngr