Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has said nobody misquoted the statement of the National Security Adviser (NSA) Major Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd) on the missing fund budgeted for arms procurement.
Wike said it was public knowledge even before Monguno’s statement that no delivery of arms had been made years after the Federal Government withdrew money from the Excess Crude Account.
According to a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Kelvin Ebiri.the governor spoke when he received the Board of Editors of Independent Newspapers Limited led by the company’s Managing Director and Editor-in-chief, Steve Omanufeme, at Government House, Port Harcourt, yesterday.
He made the statement in reaction to the $1bn budgeted for procurement of arms to boost the war against insurgency which Monguno said was missing.
Though the NSA would later deny that he was quoted out of context, Wike countered Monguno that the statement was true and there was no need denying it.
He also stressed that was shameful that a government that claimed to be fighting corruption would allow the money and the weapons to go missing.
In his words, “Now, the National Security Adviser says the $1bn Dollar they took from our Excess Crude Account without even paying us our 13 percent derivation is gone.
They said they’ve not seen the weapons.
“But this one the National Security Adviser is saying that they misquoted him. I tell you, nobody is misquoting anything. We are aware that there was no weapon.
“Even the Chief of Army Staff said he didn’t collect money. So where did the money go to. This is a government fighting corruption and the press is not talking.”
