Worsening Insecurity: Senate Rejects Motion To Probe Military Finances

The Nigerian Senate has rejected the call to probe the finances of the nation’s Armed Forces.

The call was made on Wednesday by Senator Adams Oshiomhole who moved a motion to that effect on the floor of the Nigeria’s Upper Legislative House yesterday, saying the military must be made accountable for the funds they receive annually from the government.

The lawmaker spoke on the heels of the call by the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, to the federal government to sack Service Chiefs in the country if they failed to end insecurity in the country in 90 days.

Senator Oshiomhole said his motion became necessary in the face of the upsurge of insecurity in the country in recent years, wondering what the military has done with the huge budgetary allocation to them.

The nation’s Armed Forces consist of the Army, navy and Airforce.

Checks y the magazine indicate that the Army alone was allocated over N1.5 trillion in this year’s budget.

The  lawmaker’s motion was however rejected by the senators, who many say may not  have seen the urgent need to probe the yearly Military Budget, despite the fact that many Nigerians also consider investigating the funds allocated to the Armed Forces to be a necessity if indeed insecurity in the country is to be tackled.

Not a few Nigerians insist that the rejection may further intensify calls for the military finances to be investigated, due to the belief that the current insecurity in the country cannot be justified in the face of the huge annual budgetary allocations to the military.

The senator, a former governor of Edo state cited the recent abduction of school children in Ogbomoso, Oyo state, and the heightened insecurity across the country which he said has become worrisome considering the huge budgetary allocation to the Armed Forces in the country.

The Armed Forces take a huge chunk of the nation’s yearly budget the senator said, wondering why it has become difficult for them to tackle the menace of kidnapping, banditry and terrorism in the country.

Oshiomhole lamented that past calls for the military to be probed has been largely ignored by the Nigerians Senate, saying the military should be made ‘accountable” to Nigerians, particularly concerning the funds they receive form the government.

“If the armed forces are not accountable, we can’t make progress. We need to carry out a security audit; money was released; who used it?’ he said.