$1bn arm scandal:  Buhari’s presidency, a parlour of corruption, PDP alleges

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the assertion by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Gen. Babagana Monguno, that the $1bn drawn from the national treasury for purchase of arms can’t be traced, leaves no one in doubt that the Buhari Presidency has become a parlour of corruption for fraudsters.

Major General Babagana Monguno, who is the National Security Adviser (NSA), was said to have alleged during an interview with BBC Hausa Service that the funds meant for arms procurement were missing under the former security chiefs.

Reacting in a statement signed by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP said the fresh revelation by the NSA only goes to further validate the anxieties in the public space that the money, which was in 2017 sneaked out from the national coffers without appropriation, has since been diverted to private purses of corrupt APC leaders and the criminal cabal in the Buhari Presidency.

“It is indeed shameful that President Muhammadu Buhari is presiding over a security architecture where funds provided by his Presidency for purchase of arms has vanished into thin air while our citizens and gallant troops in the front are left at the mercy of terrorists and insurgents.

“While it is common knowledge that this administration is into treasury looting, our party asserts that stealing money meant for purchase of arms to protect the people is an unpardonable sacrilege,” the party said.

The PDP added that this could be part of the reason the Buhari administration and the APC leadership of the Senate hurriedly conferred diplomatic immunity to the erstwhile service chiefs, under whose command the humongous sum grew wings.

The party insisted that President Buhari, as the commander-in-chief, must take the full responsibility of explaining the whereabouts of the money as the buck stops only on his table.

The PDP also urged the NSA to commence a system wide investigation as well as place certain APC leaders and their cronies in the Presidency under watch to ensure that none of them escapes from the country to evade justice.