Nigeria's Arms deal: Group urges FG to quiz Ex President Jonathan

The Arewa Youths For Peace and Security, a non-governmental organisation, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to extend the probe of the $2.1billion arms deal beyond the former National Security Adviser, NSA, Colonel Sambo Dasuki to former President Goodluck Jonathan who held sway as President and Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces and the approving authority, especially the approval he granted the former NSA to borrow from the finance ministry part of the monies recovered from the late Sani Abacha.

The group also commended the President for tackling corruption and ensuring that no group or organisation is allowed to undermine the authority of the state as well as constituted authority.

Director of the group, Salihu Dantata Mahmud, said in an interview that although the office of the National Security Adviser is quite huge and sensitive, the occupant takes directives, particularly where release of funds are involved from the Presidecrent, therefore he could not have acted without the approval of the President.

His words, “Let us first and foremost understand the role of the National Security Adviser and what it stands for, in the United States of America for instance, after the National Security Adviser you have the chairman Joint Chief of Staff which rotates among the military, Air force and the Navy. What happens is that all the briefings of these three forces are submitted to the NSA and in that instance you could say that yes an NSA played an intermediary role. But going by his training and background as a military officer as former director of military Intelligence one can again say that Sambo did not act as expected of a military person.

“The reason President Jonathan appointed him in the first place was because of his past experience, therefore, one would have expected that Dasuki ought to have advised President Jonathan on hos best to handle the mess that he has found himself in today, because the money was meant for a certain purpose other than the purpose for which it was being used. We are also not ruling out the fact that in a country where sycophancy plays a very major role in the way we do things, Sambo may have as well did what he did just to satisfy the former President at the expense of the country and the millions of people in the North East.

“So it is our believe, that President Muhammadu Buhari can as well do this country good by extending the probe to the former President and this comes from the memo released by the former minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, where she stated that the former NSA made a request and that particular request was approved by the President Jonathan.