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Army will raise N1bn to support vehicle manufacturing company – Buratai

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5 years ago

April 29, 2019

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The Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, on Saturday, April 27, said the Nigerian Army would source for N1bn to support its Vehicle Manufacturing Company (NAVMC).

Buratai said this at the Army’s Fire Power Demonstration at Camp Kabala Range, Jaji, marking the end of a week-long COAS Conference and CAT Week 2019.

“We are already sourcing for the sum of N1billion to support the NAVMC. You will be taken along.

We have a number of investment in the army that have been generating some amount of money.

“We will take a loan from there to support NAVMC, so that they will be able to realise our dream of producing indeginous armoured fighting vehicles and to continue to maintain our existing equipment,” Buratai said.

According to him, the new inventions and acquisition to the Army are force multipliers.

He noted that the conference had brought everybody together to access what had so far been achieved in the the first quarter of 2019.

“The innovations by the Nigerian Army in the areas of equipment production, localising and bringing back vehicle and equipment, were hitherto abandoned.

Resuscitating them is another major achievement that we have recorded. “As you have been promised by the Group Managing Director of NAVMC, in the next three to four months, we should have a brand new vehicle, originally produced by the Nigerian Army for use in the army.”

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They are also for services of the general public that may find it useful, especially the paramilitary agencies.” “This, we believe, will transform the Nigerian Army and Nigerian industrial companies, by the time we start mass production,” he said.

“I have said it before, military equipment are never obsolete. With maintenance culture of the military globally, vehicles and equipment of the second world war are useful in many parts of the world,” he said.

Governor Nasir El-Rufia of Kaduna state, who was the special guest of honour at the event, commended the military for securing the state and the country at large.

The governor, who was represented by his Deputy, Bala Bantex, said the Nigerian Army could not afford to lag behind in battle preparedness.

“The Nigerian Army is in better position, and capacity, to contain any form of threat within and outside Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has distanced itself from a document in circulation on social media which purportedly shows a new upgraded salary structure for members of the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN).

The acting spokesperson for the DHQ, Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, in a statement issued on Friday, April 26, described the document as fictitious, noting that the document does not reflect the true salary structure of personnel of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

He said though President Muhammdu Buhari had signed the new minimum N30,000, wage bill, the document in circulation was a fake and intended to cause disaffection among members of the armed forces.