Controversy Over N10.8bn In Defence Budget Unneccesary’

Permanent secretary of the Ministry of Defence, Ibrahim Kana has described as “misconstrued conception” the purported N10.8 billion in the ministry’s 2023 budget.

The controversy came up during the Senate committee meeting at the National Assembly on Thursday,  November 17, 2022.

The committee was said to have uncovered a wholesome N10.8 billion imputed by the ministry of Defence into the budget.

The quoted money was meant for the revitalisation of Mungonu, a terrorist place in Borno State. The contract was slated for army contractors as other contractors were reluctant to work in the ravaged town based on security concerns.

The monies are in two faces, N8.6 billion, which was for Mungonu and not the same as purchases of military hardware while the N2.25 billion is for the safe school initiative, the ministry said.

Kana said he made it clear before the committee that the sum was added to the ministry budget by the ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning for ease of execution of the intervention projects.

Kana said, “We didn’t initiate it, we didn’t include it in our consultation and we found out that its from the finance ministry. We found out that these projects have been with the ministry of Education and they now realized that, they should be under the ministry of Defence because they are products of insurgency and therefore, the Defence ministry is better positioned to do the job compared to the Education ministry. The ministry of Defence (MoD) is aware and is from presidential intervention and I don’t think there is any duplication.”