It has been gathered that many of the weapons bought by former president Goodluck Jonathan are second-hand hardware that were unserviceable and useless.
Jonathan, speaking at a lecture he delivered on “Youth Entrepreneurship” at the Oxford Union in the United Kingdom (UK), claimed that his administration bought warships and aircraft as he tried defend former National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki of corruption allegations involving $2.2 billion voted for arms procurement.
“I don’t believe somebody can just steal $2.2 billion; we bought warships, we bought aircraft, we bought lots of weapons for the army and so on and so forth and you are still saying 2.2billion, so where did we get the money to buy all those things?” he had said.
However, several military sources have rebuffed the claim saying the Jonathan administration bought at least three second-hand Alpha Jets for the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) and two helicopters which could not be deployed because they were not weaponised and the helicopters were cannibalised.
They revealed that NAF had to reconfigure two demilitarised Alpha jets in its inventory before it could be used in the fight against Boko Haram.
“The two aircraft are among those bought from the United States in 2015 by the immediate past administration. Before now, they could not be deployed in the theatre of operation due to the inherent weapon delivery deficiency but limited for training purposes.
“We had to look inward to seek ways of achieving its drive for self-reliance through research and development.
“NAF assembled a team of technicians to develop a feasible model for the project since the Original Equipment Manufacturer had long closed down the production line
“The model worked on ground, and has since been mounted on the Alpha Jets, and test flown successfully. This feat was a major research and development breakthrough for the NAF and the nation as a huge foreign exchange saver.”
Source: Today.ng
