Information and Culture Minister, Mr. Lai Mohammed has heaped blames on
\nformer President Goodluck Jonathan, accusing him of purchasing substandard
\nMilitary weapons for the fight against Boko Haram.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued on Monday by the Senior Assistant to the Minister of
\nInformation and Culture, Segun Adeyemi, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, insisted that
\nwhatever weapons that were procured by the Jonathan Administration for the
\nmilitary to prosecute the war against terrorism were substandard and could
\nnot have been responsible for the string of successes recorded by the
\nmilitary in recent times.<\/p>\n
He described as unfortunate and unsubstantiated the statement credited to
\nformer President Goodluck Jonathan attributing the recent successes in the
\nwar to the weapons allegedly bought by his Administration that were
\ndelivered after he had left office.
\nMohammed said that the present administration owes it a duty to put the
\nrecord straight, especially because the issues raised by the former
\nPresident are of public interest and borders on national security.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe weapons, munition and equipment which the former President said he
\nbought were refurbished and lacked the basic components and spare parts.
\nAdditionally, the ammunition bought for both high calibre and small
\nweapons have mostly expired, incompatible with weapons and grossly
\ninadequate.
\n\u201dIt is pertinent to state that the ammunition he was referring to were
\nback loaded because they explode within the barrel when fired, thus
\nleading to deaths and injuries among soldiers,\u201d Alhaji Mohammed said.<\/p>\n
The Minister maintained that the troops also lacked the much-needed lift
\nand operational vehicles and other equipment which they needed for an
\neffective prosecution of the war, until the present Administration
\nameliorated the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe situation was so pathetic that soldiers were often transported in
\nCivilian JTF vehicles, civilian vehicles, trailers and water tankers when
\ngoing to the theatres of operation. The revelations on the sorry state of
\nthings in the past, which have emanated from the investigative panel so
\nfar, point clearly to the kind of legacy bequeathed to this administration
\nby the past government.<\/p>\n
\u201dThat explains why troops remained largely static and were unable to
\neffectively deploy to completely rout the Boko Haram terrorists in all
\ntheir known enclaves. The high level of casualties sustained by our
\ngallant soldiers was most unprecedented and cannot be compared to any
\nknown military operations in recent times, all because of the terrible
\nstate of affairs suffered by the military under the Jonathan
\nAdministration,\u201d the Minister said.<\/p>\n
He said apparently because former President Jonathan could not understand
\nhow credible and dedicated leadership could impact positively on the
\nmorale and performance of troops, he has chosen to denigrate the system
\nfor the unprecedented feat that was achieved within the first six months
\nof the Buhari Administration \u2013 something that he could not achieve in all
\nof six years.<\/p>\n
\u201dIt is also clear, as has been shown so far by the outcome of the panel
\nprobing past arms deals, that the purchase of substandard weapons
\napparently resulted from the massive corruption that enveloped the deals,
\nthe kind of horrifying graft that saw the purchase of refurbished choppers
\nthat lacked rotors, or fighter jets that could not be deployed to the
\ntheatre of war because they were not up to par.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe needless loss of lives of many of our gallant troops, resulting from
\nthe lack of standard weaponry and low morale in the past, is not a matter
\nto be trivialized under any circumstance,\u201d said Mohammed..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Information and Culture Minister, Mr. Lai Mohammed has heaped blames on former President Goodluck Jonathan, accusing him of purchasing substandard Military weapons for the fight against Boko Haram. In a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n