Military denies profiting from terrorism

The denial was made by Defence spokesman, Major General John Enenche.

“The attention of defence headquarters has been drawn to an inciting corruption allegation against military officials, by Transparency International,” Enenche said at a press conference in Abuja.

“Let me start by making it clear that this sweeping allegation is false with the following clarifications.

“The present leadership of the Armed Forces of Nigeria has done a lot to train, boost troops’ morale and procure vital equipment through due process, for the North East operations against Boko Haram in particular and other operations.

“The defence headquarters, army, navy and air force headquarters have established procurement branches that are guided by the rules and regulations of the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP).

“The Ministry of Defence deals directly with states and governments on defence equipment procurement without using contractors or vendors any longer.

“More so that the Nigerian military was on 22 March 2017 credited by the U.S. as having done very well to fight insurgency and extremism among others, with advice to other countries to learn from Nigeria. That such an allegation is coming at the peak of consistent successes being recorded at our areas of operational engagements, the North East in particular, it must be treated with utmost suspicion,” he added.

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Transparency International had accused the military of benefitting from the insurgency by using fake defence contracts to launder funds.