Nigerians cannot stop asking the question why Brigadier-General Jafaru Lawal Isa (Rtd), a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) was not detained or charged to court like others, who have issues with the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) on US$2.1billion fund for the purchase of arm to combat Boko Haram, allegedly mismanaged by the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, (Rtd), who is currently being held by the Department of State Services and is undergoing trial. This clarification is necessary in the context of a report published by a respected national newspaper (not The Sun), which gave the impression that General Isa was involved in the 2.1 billion dollar arms deal. A revelation from EFCC has shed more light on what happened and helped to set the record straight. The EFCC through a foreign radio station programme dismissed the insinuation that the General Isa’s ordeal had nothing to do with arms deal saga. His involvement in National Security Adviser (NSA) ‘Safe House’ was in September, 2012 and the arms deal saga started in January, 2015 to May, 2015. The NSA ‘Safe House’ and arms deal are two different things.
In the heat of the Boko Haram car bomb attacks in Kano city in 2012, the Isa was called upon by his old associate in the military, Dasuki, to assist in the precarious security situation existing in Kano city at the time. The General obliged and the need to have a ‘safe house’ was mooted by the NSA. A ‘safe house’ is a security building where security operators are housed, and from that facility they were to study the modus operandi of the Boko Haram and improve their intelligence gathering efforts, learn how to minimize the ferocity of the attacks. But because of the sensitivity of the ‘safe house’ in question it could not be done directly by the Office of the NSA (ONSA), and for this reason it had to go through a third party. Agreement was reached, the search for an apartment commenced in 2012. A house that met the requirement was found and processing and documentation was done, a deposit was sent from the ONSA but shortage of fund prevented the completion of the transaction. By the time the ONSA could get the money, the transaction had collapsed and the owner of the building had sold the same house to another buyer. The money meant for the house, N150 million, which was sent in about seven tranches could not meet up with the transaction. The effort to get another suitable building that would meet the actual requirement began again. The search continued till the general election was conducted.
It was on this basis that the documents, receipts and every other thing were presented to the EFCC and the same EFCC found that there was no illegality nor fraud intended on the part of retired army general and more importantly no government money was lost. Consequently, the EFCC said his involvement was legitimate and he was cleared.
►Adeyemi Tajudeen Omotunde wrote from the Department of Statistics, Auchi Polytechnic, Edo State.