Former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (Rtd), has denied the allegations of misappropriating $1 billion meant for arms purchase during his time in office.......CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE>>>>>
Buratai submitted that no funds for weapons purchase passed through his hands directly and all purchases done during his time followed due procurement processes.
Naija News reports Buratai was Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff between July 2015 and January 2021.
Speaking on Tuesday during an interview with Arsie TV, the former COAS maintained that the allegations against him are baseless, malicious and politically motivated.
He outlined that the federal government had previously denied the allegations as false, but some certain highly placed individuals and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have continued to make issues out of it.
He clarified that the government has also denied allegations by the PDP that the said funds were used for the 2019 elections.
Denying the allegations of fund misappropriation, Buratai said, “This is another big fallacy against me. There was not a single fund given directly to me that I used. All budgetary releases are appropriately accounted for in our procurement system. All the funds that are claimed to have been used for the procurement they are alleging that it was not properly used, they were all part of the funds that were released to the Ministry of Defence for other purposes and other agencies.
“I know specifically that the fund they have continued to hammered, do your research, check past publications of so many Nigerian newspapers, you will discover that this same 1 billion dollars that has been bandied about as not used or misused has been explained.
“The opposition PDP in 2019, alleged that the federal government used the money for elections, is the same amount meant for arms but the federal government came out and clearly dispelled that falsehood and made it clear that this fund were used for military procurement and those procurements were mainly paid from government to government or sent to the Ministry of Defence for procurement. The Army, Navy or Airforce never had no single dollar to make procurement from that fund.
“And this fund they are talking about falsely they said when we left office, the funds could not be accounted for and the equipment could not be found and these are all false and very malicious and disappointing especially from certain individuals who are highly placed.
“The allegations are malicious, unfounded and for political reasons.”