Boko Haram: Lai Mohammed Accuses Jonathan of Buying Substandard Weapons

Information and Culture Minister, Mr. Lai Mohammed has heaped blames on

former President Goodluck Jonathan, accusing him of purchasing substandard

Military weapons for the fight against Boko Haram.
In a statement issued on Monday by the Senior Assistant to the Minister of

Information and Culture, Segun Adeyemi, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, insisted that

whatever weapons that were procured by the Jonathan Administration for the

military to prosecute the war against terrorism were substandard and could

not have been responsible for the string of successes recorded by the

military in recent times.
He described as unfortunate and unsubstantiated the statement credited to

former President Goodluck Jonathan attributing the recent successes in the

war to the weapons allegedly bought by his Administration that were

delivered after he had left office.
Mohammed said that the present administration owes it a duty to put the

record straight, especially because the issues raised by the former

President are of public interest and borders on national security.

”The weapons, munition and equipment which the former President said he

bought were refurbished and lacked the basic components and spare parts.

Additionally, the ammunition bought for both high calibre and small

weapons have mostly expired, incompatible with weapons and grossly

inadequate.
”It is pertinent to state that the ammunition he was referring to were

back loaded because they explode within the barrel when fired, thus

leading to deaths and injuries among soldiers,” Alhaji Mohammed said.

The Minister maintained that the troops also lacked the much-needed lift

and operational vehicles and other equipment which they needed for an

effective prosecution of the war, until the present Administration

ameliorated the situation.
”The situation was so pathetic that soldiers were often transported in

Civilian JTF vehicles, civilian vehicles, trailers and water tankers when

going to the theatres of operation. The revelations on the sorry state of

things in the past, which have emanated from the investigative panel so

far, point clearly to the kind of legacy bequeathed to this administration

by the past government.
”That explains why troops remained largely static and were unable to

effectively deploy to completely rout the Boko Haram terrorists in all

their known enclaves. The high level of casualties sustained by our

gallant soldiers was most unprecedented and cannot be compared to any

known military operations in recent times, all because of the terrible

state of affairs suffered by the military under the Jonathan

Administration,” the Minister said.
He said apparently because former President Jonathan could not understand

how credible and dedicated leadership could impact positively on the

morale and performance of troops, he has chosen to denigrate the system

for the unprecedented feat that was achieved within the first six months

of the Buhari Administration – something that he could not achieve in all

of six years.
”It is also clear, as has been shown so far by the outcome of the panel

probing past arms deals, that the purchase of substandard weapons

apparently resulted from the massive corruption that enveloped the deals,

the kind of horrifying graft that saw the purchase of refurbished choppers

that lacked rotors, or fighter jets that could not be deployed to the

theatre of war because they were not up to par.
”The needless loss of lives of many of our gallant troops, resulting from

the lack of standard weaponry and low morale in the past, is not a matter

to be trivialized under any circumstance,” said Mohammed..

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