…As Nigerien Contractor Drags US Arms Dealer to California Court Over Unsupplied Military Hardwares
The global anti-graft campaign group and watchdog, Transparency International has accused the department of military procurement of pilfering away $15bn meant for procuring military hardwares to prosecute the Boko Haram warfare, linking it to the contentious $2.1bn Dasuki Gate’s arms scandal.
In a new report published on Thursday, the organization described corruption in the defence procurement department as “the new diesel for Nigeria’s kleptocrats,” The New Diplomat gathered.
It estimated that more than $15bn had been stolen, “leaving the military without vital equipment, insufficiently trained, low in morale and under-resourced.”
According to the group, “this has crippled the Nigerian military.”
Dismissing the allegation, the Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen. John Enenche, has rejected the Transparency Int’l’s report, describing it as “a sweeping allegation.”
Enenche argued the defence ministry now does“government-to-government” deals and no longer engages contractors.
The fresh revelation, it was learnt, lends credence to the ongoing court battle in the United States, where a national of Niger Republic, Hima Aboubakar, and a US arms dealer, Ara Dolarian, are engaged in a legal battle involving a $246m contract.
This development, The New Diplomat gathered is not unconnected with the controversial arms procurement deals under the immediate-past administration of Goodluck Jonathan which has led to prolonged court battle and revelations coming from the embattled Ex-National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki.
The $246m order at the height of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2014 was for the supply of weapons and equipment, including helicopters, bombs and ammunition.
It was reported the deal collapsed in 2015 and the arms were never delivered, forcing Aboubakar to sue Dolarian and his company Societe d’Equipments Internationaux for fraud in a Californian court.
Aboubakar claimed the US arms dealer failed to ship $8.6m worth of bombs and rockets to Nigeria as ordered, damaging his reputation as “a trusted arms supplier to the Nigerian military”.
Dolarian, in his defence, however, alleged in court documents that he was unwittingly caught up in a “money laundering scheme” and that Aboubakar’s arms money was “stolen from the Nigerian government”.
Recall, Retired Col. Sambo Dasuki is answering charges for criminal diversion of $2.1bn arms fund, breach of trust, money laundering and arms possession which was believed he masterminded for pecuniary political interest under the past administration.
