A civil rights advocacy group \u2013 HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF
\nNIGERIA (HURIWA) has expressed optimism that in line with his zero
\ntolerance to procurement corruption, the chief of army staff Lieutenant
\nGeneral Yusuf Tukur Buratai will quickly reorganize the finance
\ndepartment of the Army to ensure that no General officer commanding any
\nof the division or indeed any officer of the military could have access
\nto huge amount of money at any given time without effective checks and
\nbalances.<\/p>\n
Also, the Rights group which had earlier in the year lauded the Army
\nChief for promptly responding to a freedom of information request on
\ncounter terrorism expenses sent in by a Lagos based non-governmental
\ngroup-SERAP, has tasked the Army’s high command to hand over the General
\nofficer commanding (GOC) 8 Division Sokoto Major General Hakeem Otiki to
\nthe Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (EFFCC)to enable a
\nthorough, independent and transparent investigation to be carried out on
\nthe reported theft of #400 million by escorts delegated by the GOC.<\/p>\n
“As a human rights group with tremendous respect for the many lofty
\nideas of anti-corruption strategies introduced by the current Army
\nChief, we expect that the reported disappearance of such a humongous
\ncash belonging to the country purportedly meant for the counter
\ninsurgency war, is handled independently in line with established
\nprecedence set by the current chief of Army staff who had indeed handed
\nover several Generals to the EFCC in the past in connection with the
\nalleged diversion of resources budgeted for the prosecution of the
\ncounter terrorism war”.<\/p>\n
HURIWA also charged the Army Chief to use his good offices to introduce
\nstringent measures which will further tighten the ways cash transactions
\nare done so it would be easier to prevent this kind of scandal that
\nreportedly occurred in Sokoto which has brought enormous opprobrium on
\nthe global image of the country.<\/p>\n
The Rights group stressed that it believes that the current Army Chief
\nhas the zeal and capacity to ensure that these dynamic changes are
\neffectively implemented even as it counseled the\u00a0 COAS not to perceive
\nwell conceived opinion of hitherto friendly CSO’s such as HURIWA as
\ntargeted at rubishing his acclaimed milestones. “HURIWA notes with
\ndispleasure that some amorphous groups with no traceable offices and
\nwhich are not registered by the Nigerian state are in the habits of
\nmisconstruing and misinterpreting the good intentions of HURIWA embodied
\nin our public statements suggesting how best to successfully wage the
\ncounter terror war. These profiteers who are simply empty headed
\nsycophants think the only way to show friendship and partner with the
\nArmy is to always issue praise songs and pour encomiums no matter how
\nbizarre and unreal on the person of the COAS even as these groups keep
\npublishing diatribes and unsubstantiated accusations against HURIWA and
\nthe person of the National Coordinator. As quality partners we think it
\nis the best mode of relationship to exchange our views publicly and
\nmildly since private exchanges of letters with the office of COAS may
\nnot be always ideal for some public interest advocacy campaigns which
\naren’t meant to diminish the achievements of the current chief of Army
\nstaff or the institution of the Army”.<\/p>\n
Specifically on the reported scandal of the missing millions, HURIWA
\nstated that:\u00a0 “It is certainly not enough to detain the said military
\nGeneral in a military facility and certainly it is insufficient to rely
\nonly on internal mechanisms to unravel the circumstances surrounding the
\nreported disappearance of such a huge amount of cash. The most logical
\nthing to do is to also invite the Economic and Financial Crimes
\nCommission (EFCC) and ICPC to provide forensic investigative skills to
\nuncover the truth behind the extensively damaging scam and to enforce
\nthe relevant anti-economic crimes’ law where necessary even as the
\nindicted persons must be afforded the opportunities for fair hearing in
\nline with section 36(5) of the Constitution”.<\/p>\n
HURIWA stated that it has just been told that the General Officer
\nCommanding (GOC), 8 Division, Sokoto, Major General Hakeem Otiki, is
\nreportedly placed under house arrest, Daily Sun has gathered.<\/p>\n
The Rights group stated that from media sources, the officer who was
\nredeployed to the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), is
\ncurrently being detained at the Officers Mess where he is being guarded
\nby heavily armed soldiers and may be moved to Abuja anytime from now
\njust as it stated that available informationstates that when finally in
\nAbuja, he is expected to be grilled by personnel from the Directorate of
\nMilitary Intelligence (DMI), Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB), and
\nNigerian Army Corps of Military Police (NACMP).<\/p>\n
Quoting media reports, HURIWA stated that it will be the standard
\npractice to bring all persons implicated in this scandal to justice
\ngoing by the report that the so-called VIP, allegedly being escorted by
\nthe soldiers who happens to be the younger brother of the former GOC,
\nmay have actually connived with the soldiers to steal the N400million as
\nhe is nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n
A civil rights advocacy group \u2013 HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has expressed optimism that in line with his zero tolerance to procurement corruption, the chief of army…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"\n