The Nigerians in Diaspora Monitoring Group has condemned what it described as efforts to rope in the Chief of Army Staff, Major General Tukur Buratai, in the funds for arms purchase scandal saying that those behind the surreptitious moves have the ulterior motive of ridiculing the anti-corruption fight.
Reacting to calls by some groups for the inclusion of Major General Buratai in the ongoing probe by the committee established to audit arms and equipment procurement in the military between 2007 and 2015, the Nigerians in Diaspora Monitoring Group said such calls merely indicate that corruption is fighting back.
And electronic statement signed by the group’s coordinator, Comrade Philip Agbese noted that contrary to misleading claims being made by sponsored activists, the responsibility of Major General Buratai as Director of Procurement could not have had anything to do with approving or disbursing funds.
The statement said the mischief intended by the calls being made by these groups is glaring and is proof that Nigerians must accept that corruption is fighting back to ensure a return to the era of business as usual.
It argued that “The fact that Major General Buratai was the Defence Head Quarters (DHQ) Director of Procurement between 2012 and 2015 without being linked to the arms purchase scandal is a basis for commendation instead of using the same fact in a twisted way to clamour that the investigation carried out by the committees was incomplete.”
It further contended that “The claims being made by these people is targeted at casting aspersion on the work of the committee since they are suggesting that it should have included names to satisfy the whims of certain people. They are already preparing the ground work to create loopholes for their sponsors and dragging the Chief of Army Staff into the probe by all means must be one of the schemes to ensure that their paymaster whip up public sentiments against the anti-corruption fight.
“We fear that these calls are part of a clandestine plot by Boko Haram sponsors to discourage the army and roll back the recent gains and successes that they have made so far in crushing the extremist insurgents.
“The demand by these groups is also an affront to the authority of President Muhammadu Buhari as they are insinuating that the probe he ordered is meant to witch-hunt a particular branch of the military when they claimed that only past and serving Air Force chiefs have been indicted. Must the other branches be indicted just for the sake of creating balance when they have not done anything wrong?
“Calls like this make it imperative that Nigerians familiarize themselves with the concept of command structure and approving authorities in the public sector so that mischief makers have lesser chance of misleading people.” It stated.
The Nigerians in Diaspora Monitoring Group also appealed to the Chief of Army Staff not to allow the distractions being thrown his way to negatively affect the war on insurgency but should rather treat it as part of the psychological war that Boko Haram and its sponsors are mounting against the Nigerian state.
According to the group, “The connection between those making these jaundiced calls and the Boko Haram sponsors should be thoroughly investigated with a view to disrupting the propaganda and psychological warfare that they aiming at citizens.
“Authorities must also not delay any further in bringing these Boko Haram sponsors to book since neutralizing them is crucial to making the gains of the war on insurgency permanent.” It said