A popular lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana has reacted to the arms deal scandal rocking the country, calling for the suspects to be tried at the International Criminal Court.
The Punch reports that Falana said this in a paper he presented in Abuja on Tuesday, December 8 during the opening of the office of Amnesty International.
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Falana noted that thousands of soldiers lost their lives in the fight against Boko Haram because they were fighting insurgency with inferior weapons. He suggested that people who diversified funds meant for arms should be prosecuted for the avoidable deaths.
He said: “By diverting the huge funds for arms procurement, the suspects deliberately caused the death of not less than 25,000 ill-equipped soldiers and unarmed civilians, including children. For committing such grave crimes against humanity, the suspects should be referred to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague for prosecution.”
He said that the national assembly approved $1bn for the purchase of arms during the Goodluck Jonathan administration. Dasuki Sambo who was the national security adviser during the administration has been charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Falana said: “I wrote to the then Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to demand an inventory of the arms bought with the $1bn loan. In her embarrassing reaction to my request, the minister stated that she was not in a position to account for the loan!
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“When I persisted in demanding transparency and accountability, the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, claimed that the armed forces led by him lacked the equipment to fight the insurgents.”
He urged President Muhammadu Buhari to order the office of the accountant-general of the federation to account for the $4bn recovered from the Abacha loot.
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