by Seun Akioye,

Military sources yesterday rejected former President Goodluck Jonathan’s claim that his administration bought warships and aircraft.

The former president, who spoke at a lecture he delivered on “Youth Entrepreneurship” at the Oxford Union in the United Kingdom (UK), tried to exonerate former National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki of corruption allegations involving $2.2 billion voted for arms procurement.

Jonathan said he did not believe the former NSA stole the money because weapons were bought for the military to fight Boko Haram.

Jonathan said: “I don’t believe somebody can just steal $2.2 billion; we bought warships, we bought aircraft, we bought lots of weapons for the army and so on and so forth and you are still saying 2.2billion, so where did we get the money to buy all those things?”

Independent checks by The Nation
revealed that the former President might have been deceived by his officials on the type of weapons that were bought for the military.

According to several military sources who asked to remain anonymous because of the “sensitivity” of the matter, many of the weapons bought under the former president were “unserviceable and useless”.

One said the Jonathan administration bought at least three fairly used (Tokunbo) Alpha Jets for the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) and two helicopters. But the jets were , the sources claimed, “not worth anything because they were not weaponised and the helicopters were cannibalised.”

NAF recently reconfigured two demilitarised Alpha jets in its inventory. According to the NAF website, the jets were bought from the United States in 2015 to help in the fight against Boko Haram.

“The two aircraft are among the four Alpha Jets bought from the United States in 2015 by the immediate past administration to enhance the operational capability of the NAF to combat Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast.

“The aircraft, however, before now, could not be deployed in the theatre of operation due to the inherent weapon delivery deficiency, hence its limited use for training purposes. The urgent need in recent times to commit all NAF available platforms to OPERATION LAFIYA DOLE to enhance the success of the counter insurgency operation necessitated the Service to look inward to seek ways of achieving its drive for self reliance through research and development.

“ A number of vendors invited to Nigeria to assess the platforms had concluded that it would be difûcult or almost impossible to undertake the project since the Original Equipment Manufacturer had long closed down the production line. A few others who agreed to the possibility of having the aircraft reconfigured to carry munitions have also submitted proposals for initial assessment fee ranging from $20,000 – $30,000 before they could come up with the actual cost for the project.

Convinced that the project would work, the NAF consequently assembled a team of technicians to develop a feasible model for the project. The model worked on ground, and has since been mounted on the Alpha Jets, and test fown successfully. This feat is a major research and development breakthrough for the NAF and the nation as a huge foreign exchange saver, given that the project only cost about N4,000,000.00 compared to what would be required to have it done abroad,” NAF said.

However, the former President may have been referring to the purchase of six decommissioned Norwegian battleships, bought purportedly on behalf of the Navy by former Niger Delta militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo.

The purchase had caused a huge row in Norway forcing that country’s military leadership to apologize to the lawmakers. The battleships were said to be used for anti-piracy operations on Nigerian waters. The Director of Information, Nigerian Navy, Commodore Christian Ezekobe, did not respond to our correspondent’s questions on the whereabouts of the battleships.

However a search on the Navy website revealed that the service has 24 battle ships purchased over several years while it still awaits one battleship built in China, NNS Unity.

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) is seeking to add an additional C295W military aircraft to its fleet as the battle against Boko Haram reaches an advance stage. NAF has been crucial to the recent victories recorded by the military in the Northeast, through series of sustained aerial bombardment of camps and locations of Boko Haram militants.

The aircraft is to be purchased from Airbus Defence and Space Company (Spain), which had earlier in the year made proposals to the NAF.

The Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, had played host to Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, Alfonso Barnuevo Sebastian De Erice, who led two executives of Airbus Defence and Space Company to the NAF Headquarters and held discussions on the company’s proposal to sell the C295W military aircraft to the NAF.

According to NAF, based on its operational capabilities, the aircraft was considered suitable to meet some of its operational needs, including Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) and airlift operations.

The air force has also recommended the aircraft for acquisition and provisions have been made for this in the 2017 budget proposal.

The CAS urged the visiting team to start looking into training areas for NAF pilots and technicians on the aircraft.

This, he said, is with a view to ensuring a smooth take-off for the operation of the aircraft in the event of its approval by the Federal Government.

BeeBeeOoh:
Money induced military, keep on deceiving Zombies & Nigeria at large.

You can deceive some people at a time, but you can't deceive everybody at the same time..

sparkle10:


Catapult of Envy.

Here they come again. Please ask them if Ukraine also supplied dead equipment as captured below?

Ukraine exports weapons to 19 countries in 2014 – State Export Control Service

http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/economic/276592.html

ocelot2006:
And who bought the in new T-72M1 and T-72OV main battle tanks, the new BTR APCs, the new BVP1 IFVs, new Bigfoot MRAPs, those brand new police Streit MK2 Spartans and the RG-42 Nyala MRAPs? How about the light vehicles from Toyota Land cruisers to Hiluxs? Who equipped the security forces to better firearms (Army: Beryl assault rifles, Tavor TAR 21 rifles; Navy: TAR-21 rifle, Beretta CX4 rifles; DSS's Galil Ace Assault rifles, Tabor MTAR 21s, FN FS2000s and P90 SMGs; NIA's FN P90s), brand new made in Nigeria Marom Dolphin tactical vests? Who bought those new CH-3A UCAVs? Who revived our C-130 and Super Puma fleets? Who built the NPF's dedicated Public Land Mobile Network across the nation, or the FCTs surveillance system?

That's right: Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

babyfaceafrica:
Who dey lie now?

pchukwudi:
Hopeless Nation. Views of some fake "annonymous" soldiers are now the OFFICIAL position of the Nigeria Defence Ministy. Thank God you will live to reap what you are sowing.

BeeBeeOoh:
Money induced military, keep on deceiving Zombies & Nigeria at large.



You can deceive some people at a time, but you can't deceive everybody at the same time..

Smellymouth:
"...Independent checks by The Nation
revealed that the former President might have been deceived by his officials on the type of weapons that were bought for the military..."
____________________________
After them go dey arrest yahoo-yahoo boys..
Like play like play, this country don dey turn university..
I will still say it again, make dem sell this country institution..

NCANN:
smello

progress69:


This is not about being tribalistic, but you igbos have to take a chill pill. Sometimes the comments u guys make are just too senseless.

Imagine a civilian,known terrorist and rebel buying decommissioned war ships on behalf on a whole Nigerian Navy. That is the height of stupidity and Foolishness. It goes beyond a sane man's comprehension.

Its not news that the Airforce tru the forner CAS bought useless jets fir outrageous amounts, this all led to the death of Civilians and Military personnels.

Jonathan and all previous service cheifs, allowed the war against BH to fester for long long, and spinning out of control simply because of the blood they were making from it.

Jonathan was juat there like an Epka, a figure head, being spinned and deceived around.

adekayo1234:
Jonathan was a failure though not a complete failure as we were made to believe but a failure all the same. He shouldn't be going around gallivanting around as though losing an election and conceding defeat is a great feat. He won't be the first and he won't be the last.
He's been trying hard to play to the gallery of recent but Nigerians know better

deji68:
so this "TheNationonline" report is the official millitary position on the arm issue? .......well some gullible people will believe it

Bethelwealthy:
I, bethelwealthy, was on board NNS akpabana on the day it was commissioned, i even ate whole chicken in the gally, a B-Class war ship bought by Jonathan. I saw the delivery of 3 others like NNS Thunder, NNS Centinary and the most recent, NNS Unity, all are war ships of high callibre, bought from USA and China. I was also witness to the Purchase of Mine-sweepers, Fast Attack crafts, amphibious air attack crafts and so many...........Let Buhari's military continue to lie. But records dont lie.
when they are done looking for a $2.2b that is not missing, the whole truth about the security vote, which Jonathan has the right to share will finally come out.
To some of us, we know what really happened, to others, Lies matter.