By OKOSUN DENNIS
The Minister of Defence, Muhammad Dan-Ali, said in Lagos on Tuesday that the rumour making the rounds that Nigeria military bought the 24 Mine Resistant Armour Protected (MRAP) vehicles donated by the U.S. Government were bought.
The APC vehicles were donated to the military as assistance to fight Boko Haram insurgents and handed over to Maj Gen Ndiomu at Ikeja cantonment last Thursday. It estimated cost was $ 11million dollars.
The minister debunked this at the commissioning of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) projects in Lagos, as well as the inspection of the MRAP.
The minister commissioned the 201 HAG Flight Line offices and crew room, 445 NAF hospital laboratory and power sub-station, Airmen transit quarters, the gym and MRAP vehicles.
He said, “That is not true. The transportation cost the United States Government 11million dollars and not the Nigerian government.
“It’s the assessment of the cost by the U.S. Government that is valued at that. It didn’t cost us much to get the vehicles. It’s only the freight that we paid for. There is no way the cost of these vehicles can be 11million dollars.”
On the availability of parts to refit the MRAPs he said, “We are going to source for the parts from the manufacturers and our school at the Armoured Street in Bauchi will do the inspection and we will get the spare parts as soon as possible to put them in order.
“Very soon we will transport it to Bauchi, where we have the workshop and people that are capable of doing the inspection.”
Also speaking on the issue of insurgency, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin said the military has degraded Boko Haram.
“Boko Haram has been degraded and they are not able to carry out coordinated attacks but of course the suicide bombing is an issue we are still grappling with.”
In his speech, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar said, “President Muhammadu Buhari has reiterated his commitment towards addressing various security challenges across the country with a view to fast tracking Nigeria’s socioeconomic development.
“To this end, NAF along with our sister-services has been engaged in counter-insurgency operations in the North East and has been playing a prominent role which has significantly degraded the insurgents.
“Apart from Operation LAFIYA DOLE, our personnel are also doing creditably in other theatres of internal security operations particularly Operation SAFE HAVEN and PULO SHIELD.”
At the palace of Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, the Royal father appealed for a reduced sentence for convicted soldiers.
He said, “For the soldiers sentenced to life imprisonment, we ask you to tamper justice with mercy. You might say they didn’t do well, but if there are no tools to work with, what will they do?”
At the commissioning were the General Officer Commanding, Major General Isidore Edet and the Commander, 9 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Bulama Biu, among others