Former Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, has denied allegations that he handled or controlled the $1 billion approved for military equipment procurement during his tenure, insisting that the money was released to the Ministry of Defence and not the Nigerian Army.
Buratai made the clarification on Monday while speaking at a conference organised by the Defence Correspondents Association of Nigeria in Abuja. He said the funds approved by the National Economic Council did not pass through his hands or the accounts of the Nigerian Army, Navy or Air Force.
The retired army chief, who was appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari on July 16, 2015, and left office on January 28, 2021, described the allegations surrounding the money as “political and malicious.”
He explained that the controversy first emerged during the 2019 general election, when opposition figures accused the government of diverting the funds for electoral purposes.
“Now, the corruption allegations, a deliberate mischief, I call it. First, the $1 billion US arms procurement controversy, the facts are simple. The $1 billion was approved by the National Economic Council for defence procurement,” Buratai said.
He maintained that neither he nor the three military services received the money directly for procurement.
“And I tell you, not a single dollar of the fund passed through my hands or through the accounts of Nigerian Army, the Navy or the Air Force. The funds were released to the Ministry of Defence and the entire procurement process was handled by that ministry,” he stated.
“The Army, Navy and Air Force never had a single dollar from that fund to make procurement directly,” he added.
Buratai said the Federal Government had publicly rejected the allegations, but argued that the controversy continued to damage his reputation and that of the military institution rather than the agency responsible for managing the funds.
He also criticised the media for what he described as inadequate investigation into how the money was spent, particularly the failure to establish why the Ministry of Defence under the previous administration had not publicly provided a detailed explanation of the expenditure.
However, a report published by TheCable in 2019 quoted the Presidency as saying that the $1 billion withdrawn from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) for security purposes was not released to the Ministry of Defence but was kept at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Garba Shehu, who was then Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, said part of the money was used to purchase 12 fighter aircraft for the Nigerian Air Force. He added that other military equipment had also been procured for the Army and Navy.
The differing accounts about where the funds were held and how they were managed have kept questions surrounding the $1 billion defence procurement allocation in public discussion.
