Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday denied that his government awarded arms procurement contracts valued at $2 billion.
Dr. Jonathan was reacting to a Wednesday statement in the media credited to former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki that all contract awards for military procurements were approved by him (Jonathan).
According to Premium Times, a presidential investigations committee into arms procurement under the administration of President Jonathan revealed in its interim report that it found extra-budgetary spending by the Jonathan administration to the tune of N643.8 billion and an additional $2.2 billion in the foreign currency component, all managed and supervised by Sambo Dasuki, a retired army colonel
“Nigerians should note that all the services generated the types of equipment needed, sourced suppliers most times and after consideration by the Office of the NSA, the President will approve application for payment,” Dasuki asserted.
The former President, who said some of the figures being thrown around as stolen by the incumbent government were unbelievable, asked: “Where did the money come from?”
Jonathan, who was the sole speaker at a Thursday event held in Washington DC, USA, said “I did not award a contract of $2 billion for procurement of weapons,” a statement he continued to repeat throughout his delivery.
He also lambasted the argument by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari that $150 billion was stolen by previous Nigerian governments.
He wondered how such a gargantuan amount of American money would disappear without the US government noticing.
The ex-President also dismissed the idea that $59.8 million dollars was misappropriated in 12 months under his administration.
He said that it would be impossible for such amount to have been misused within such a short period without anyone noticing.
Jonathan maintained that government would have experienced a standstill if such an amount had been missing and federal and state governments would not have been able to pay salaries.
Also, he drew attention to the fact that his government was not indicted by the Buhari administration, since the accusations were directed at “previous admnistrations”.
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