Buhari Set To Probe Service Chiefs,Defence Spendings

A comprehensive probe of the prosecution of the war against Boko Haram and the spending of defence budget is the offing, it has been learnt. A top military source said at the weekend that the incoming administration of Major General Muhammadu Buhari, was planning to institute the probe during which some service chiefs, past and present, would be summon to defend their tenure, especially how defence budget was spent under their watch. The source said the incoming administration was considering setting up a truth and reconciliation committee on the six-year old terror war.
The Boko Haram insurgency, which started in 2009 in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, has claimed about 15, 000 lives, destroyed property and turned thousands of people to refugees. It was also gathered that some former service chiefs and military commanders that held strategic operational and command positions, might appear or be asked to appear before the panel, whenever it is constituted, to give account of what they did and knew about the fight against insurgency.
The source said the move might not be in bad faith, but to put the records straight for posterity. He added that Buhari believed that more information on the Boko Haram insurgency should be provided for Nigerians and the international community. According to him, the president-elect’s declaration that Boko Haram is a “fraud” is indicative of his belief that “better and further” explanations on the devastating insurgency have to be provided to the public. Besides, Buhari may be interested in knowing what was responsible for the commendable manner the military turned the tide against Boko Haram after the postponement of the presidential election in February.
The source said: “I hope you will treat this information well. I want to let you know that the retired no-nonsense General, who has been elected president, may cause to be established a truth or peace and reconciliation committee. “This committee, from what I know very well, is not going to be a vindictive exercise, but a medium for more expose to be made on the phenomenon called Boko Haram and the counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency fight prosecuted by our military.
“Let me tell you that the statement he made that Boko Haram is a ‘fraud’, is loaded; you don’t expect a General and former head of state, to say too much. “In fact, the General may really want Nigerians and the global community to understand the momentum which the counterinsurgency war took a few months ago.
“You know more than 40 territories have, within a period of months, been liberated, while between then and now, almost all Boko Haram’s training camps and strongholds, including those in their biggest stronghold of Sambisa Forest, have been destroyed.” It was also learnt that a former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Abdulrahman Dambazau, may have been shortlisted as the next National Security Adviser (NSA). Another source, who also spoke in confidence with New Telegraph, said “Considering how strategic the office of the NSA is, I can tell you that the next president, who will be sworn in on May 29, is likely to pick a former COAS, General Dambazzau, as NSA. “If that happens, I tell you it will pass as a good choice, because he is a very competent General.”
It was also gathered that the case of a former Commander of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) in Baga, Borno State, Brigadier General E. Ransome-Kuti, “may now be treated administratively.”