The Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, has told the House of Representatives that he cannot answer questions on the $1 billion arms procurement because he did not sign-off the payment.
Attahiru stated his point during a tensed-filled hearing of the House’s ad-hoc Committee on Arms and Ammunition investigating the purchase of arms by the military at the National Assembly yesterday.
Drama ensued when the Chief of Army Staff refused to speak further on a document which he had presented to the committee, asking the committee instead to review the documents which he considered self-explanatory.
According to him, he had barely settled into office and is definitely not the right person to speak on arms and ammunition purchased by his predecessors.
Attahiru’s comments, however, infuriated Ejiro Ogene, a member of the committee from Delta State, who had earlier during the proceedings frowned at the COAS explanation for not appearing before the committee. Ogene insisted that the National Assembly is the House of the Nigerian people and everybody in public office works for Nigerians adding that the House speaks for the people.
With the bickering between Attahiru and the lawmaker becoming more evident, the Chairman of the Committee, Olaide Akinremi, ruled that the hearing would go into a closed-door meeting and asked the media to leave the room.
