Arms Deal Saga: Military Audit Report Clears Jonathan

The final report of President Muhammadu Buhari’s probe panel, tagged the Presidential Arms Audit Panel has exonerated former president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, from complicity in the alleged shoddy arms deals.



A pro-democracy group, Hope for Nigeria, which disclosed this to newsmen, yesterday, said that the final report of the panel, inaugurated at the outset of Buhari’s administration, was not made available to the public because the prime target, Goodluck Jonathan, was exonerated by the investigators to the disappointment of the government.

The 13-man presidential panel, set up by Buhari to audit arms purchased between 2007 and 2015, the group said, confirmed that the former president was not involved in any procurement and never allowed his office to be involved in arms purchases within the period under review.

According to the document obtained by the group from the Presidency, the panel went further to state that arms were actually bought, but admitted that some of them did not go through due process.

The panel, in its preliminary investigations, had claimed that it discovered the immediate past National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) diverted N13.2 billion (not $2.1billion) of funds meant for procurement of arms for the Nigeria military.

The panel report did not mention anything like purchasing unserviceable weapons or substandard arms as reported in the media and claimed by some government officials.

The panel made up of distinguished Nigerians toured military formations across the country to undertake physical verification of military hardware and equipment either bought or claimed to have been bought during the period under review.

The panel submitted its first interim report in November, 2015, and presented the second report in January, 2016, the document noted.

During the investigation, some members of the arms probe panel were accused of receiving bribes from individuals and companies that were being investigated by the same panel.

Some serving security officials also said the panel had accused groups and individuals via the media without giving them opportunity to defend themselves in court.

The interim report of the audit panel confirmed that the administration of the former president purchased arms and equipment for the military, which were distributed to various military formations across the country, particularly the North-East geo-political zone for counter-insurgency operations.

The group alleged that the final report, which is still held in secrecy by the Presidency, stated that former President Goodluck Jonathan did not involve himself and his office in procurement, and demanded proof of purchases and delivery in most cases.

Issues like, absence of contract agreements, award of contracts beyond authorized thresholds, transfer of public funds for unidentified purposes, and general non-adherence to provisions of the Public Procurement Act, were generally addressed by the panel.

The arms probe panel report stated that some award letters for the equipment and arms purchase contracts contained misleading delivery dates, suggesting fraudulent intent in some of the contracts.

There are several indictments on serving military officers and companies that failed to perform their contract obligations, the report added.