NIGERIA'S FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER, OTHERS ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED BOGUS ARMS DEAL

SAMBO DASUKI

Sambo Dasuki, embattled former National Security Adviser under the Goodluck Jonathan administration and Bashir Yuguda, a former Minister of State for Finance also under President Jonathan have been arrested in connection with a $2 billion arms transaction now questioned.

Yuguda was arrested on Monday, November 30, while Sambo Dasuki was transferred to the Department of State Service (DSS) headquarters in Abuja today, Tuesday based on an allegation that he had awarded "fictitious and phantom contracts" for the purchase of weapons to fight the Boko Haram insurgents.

Reports indicate that another official from the NSA's office was also detained. Sources also show that Attahiru Bafarawa, the former governor of Sokoto state and media entrepreneur, Raymond Dokpesi were also arrested on Tuesday, all in connection with the said controversial arms contract.

It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had alleged that Nigeria’s battle against Boko Haram had been hampered by a lack of weapons and so many lives lost because of the fraudulent procurement process. He had promised that anyone involved in corrupt weapons and equipment multi-billion dollar deals would face the law after the receipt of a report from a committee set up to investigate the transaction.

Dasuki 60, a retired army colonel already being tried for money laundering and illegal possession of weapons, is now accused of awarding $2 billion contracts for supply of fighter jets, helicopters, weapons and ammunition that were never delivered. He, however, claims the charges are bogus and that he is only being made a target of the government’s anti corruption campaign.

Prior to Buhari’s administration Boko Haram had captured part of Nigeria’s territory in its remote northeast and troops complained of the lack of weapons and equipment to engage the better armed insurgents leading to the involvement of armies from neighboring countries.

Boko Haram was recently named in the latest Global Terrorism Index as the most deadly terrorist group in the world having killed 6,633 people last year.