Falana urges confab delegates to probe security budgets

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana, on Monday urged delegates at the ongoing national conference to probe the budgetary allocation to the security agencies in the country. When the conference resumed plenary on Monday, Falana observed that earlier claims at the abducted Chibok schoolgirls had been freed was not true, there was the need to probe how the government had been disbursing the security votes. He frowned at the intervention of foreign countries in the search for the abducted girls, when in actual fact, the Federal Government had budgeted and spent over N3tn on military equipment in the last three years. However, another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Mike Ahamba disagreed vehemently, saying that it would be wrong for the conference to condemn the security agencies. He said doing so was capable of demoralising the soldiers who he said had been fighting for the release of the girls. He said, “There are those who are fighting seriously now, who have not eaten for days and who have not removed their uniforms because of these girls. “Moreover, this committee is not a fact-finding committee. We have no duty to be probing how budget is spent or how money is disbursed.” In his ruling, the Chairman of the conference, Justice Idris Kutigi (retd.), agreed with Ahamba ‘s submission and said that the conference should rather encourage those “who are fighting for the release of the girls to continue.”