Insurgency: Buhari is winning Boko Haram with weapons we bought — Jonathan

Insurgency: Buhari is winning Boko Haram with weapons we bought — Jonathan

Former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Thursday said President Muhammadu Buhari’s government was prosecuting the war against the Boko Haram insurgency and winning with weaponry his administration procured.
Speaking in an interview with France 24, Jonathan emphasized that he laid a solid foundation for terrorism to be defeated and expressed hope that very soon, the new government would defeat the insurgency.
According to the former President, ‘Insurgency caught the country unawares but noted that his government laid a solid foundation for terrorism to be defeated.
His words: “The new government is working hard and I believe they are still using the equipment we procured.
“Though the budget is still being debated, no new equipment has been bought, so even those equipment the President is using to prosecute the war against Boko Haram are those equipment we procured.
“When Boko Haram started in Nigeria, we had no terror experience. Yes, we had armed robbery and other common crimes, but terrorism was different because the people involved were not afraid to die.
“So, you need a different mechanism to confront terrorism; you need superior technology to be able to stop them even before they attack.
“We never had the equipment, but when we were confronted, we started acquiring and before I left office, we built reasonable capacity and I believe with what we left behind and also with what the new government will acquire, they will be able to prosecute this terror war to a reasonable conclusion.”
However, reacting to Jonathan’s assertion, the Presidency faulted the former President’s claim, saying that weapons bought by the previous administration were mostly junk.
In a statement by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the presidency said the former president got his facts mixed up.
The statement read: “We have it on good authority that the former President did not get the correct briefing on these facts. Weapons bought by his government were mostly junk.
“From the revelations of the procurement investigation committee now going on, it is clear that his government was ill-advised in its procurement processes.
“Evidence shows that some of his service chiefs used criminally-minded vendors to defraud the country of billions of Naira.
“For instance, bullion vans, the ones used in ferrying cash to and from banks were procured and presented in military colours as armoured personnel carriers. Bullion vans have what the military call ‘soft skin’, which is easily penetrated by bullet.
“On good authority, we have equally been informed that ‘floatation jackets’ were brought in as bullet-proof jackets. If the correct procurement procedure had been followed, in a government-to- government order as we now have under the Buhari administration, this disservice to the nation would not have happened.
“This administration found out, upon investigation that most of those things the soldiers at the front were complaining against was true. The personal weapons they were made to carry were those bought in the 60s, 70s and the 80s.
“Those defective weapons are now being replaced even as investigations are still going on.”
END