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House ad hoc committee furious over non-appearance of CBN, service chiefs

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The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on the Need to Review the Purchase, Use and Control of Arms, Ammunition and Related Hardware by Military, Paramilitary and Other Law Enforcement Agencies in Nigeria on Monday slammed the Central Bank of Nigeria, service chiefs and the Ministry of Defence for failing to appear before it.

The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, service chiefs, and other heads of paramilitary agencies were expected to appear to before the committee, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to explain the procurement and deployment of arms and ammunition in their respective agencies.

The invitation of the service chiefs, the Ministry of Defence and the CBN was sequel to an interview granted by the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd.) to BBC, where he alleged that the $1bn funds meant to purchase arms to tackle insurgency during the immediate past service chiefs’ tenure got missing. He however later retracted in a statement from his office that he was misquoted.

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The committee however resolved to investigate the allegation, inviting the service chiefs, the CBN and the ministry to appear before it on Monday.

At the sitting on Monday, several members of the committee criticised the CBN particularly, accusing the apex bank of serially shunning summons by the National Assembly, making them to summon the Governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru.

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