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The All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged the National Assembly to urgently initiate a probe into how the budgetary allocations to the military have been spent in recent years, with a view to establishing whether or not the Nigerian military is adequately equipped to effectively tackle the worsening scourge of terrorism in the country.
The call was contained in a statement signed by APC interim national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Lagos, Thursday.
According to the opposition party, the National Assembly, in the exercise of its constitutional duties, must invite service chiefs and other relevant government officials to shed light on how they have spent their budgetary allocations.
It said the probe became necessary in light of the insinuation in certain quarters about the capability of the nation’s military in the ongoing battle against Boko Haram.
“The Nigerian military comes highly recommended globally because it has excelled, since 1960, in peacekeeping operations around the world.
“In fact, Nigeria is among the top troop contributors to global peacekeeping operations, by virtue of the acknowledged sterling performance of its military in the various missions. ‘
“Our military has also performed credibly in internal security operations in the past. If suddenly the ability of this same military is being called to question in the ongoing battle against the Boko Haram terrorists, then something must have gone wrong”, APC said.
The statement continued: “This is why we are calling on the National Assembly to find out whether or not the soldiers we are sending out to battle the insurgents are adequately equipped to carry out their duties; to find out whether their morale is at the right level; to find out whether the huge funds being allocated for security are being used for the right purposes.
“It is important to find out whether the huge funds which are being deposited in the bank accounts of politicians, or being used to lure them into the ruling party, are being taken from the allocation to security, in which case the purpose for which the funds were allocated in the first instance would have been defeated”, APC said.
The party said the National Assembly should not be deterred by those who say military or security expenditure cannot be probed or those who will read “political meaning” to this call.
