Reps angry with Navy over purchase of foreign platforms without insight

The House of Representatives has expressed anger with the Nigerian Navy for indiscriminate acquisition of foreign platforms without its knowledge, and failed to respond to its letters demanding for documents to facilitate effective oversight of the security agency.

Chairman, House Committee on Navy, Rep Yusuf Gagdi stated this while addressing journalists after a closed door meeting with the leadership of the Nigerian Navy, during an oversight visit, on Monday in Abuja.
He said:

“We cannot say anything now until we have gone to see those projects, the platforms that are being built, then we can come back here, and have another interaction”.

Gagdi also provoked with the Nigerian Navy over at manner in which the case of a personnel, Seaman Haruna Abbas, was handled, leading to his dismissal after six years in detention.
Abbas was allegedly held in detention for the period without trial over some disciplinary issues. As a result, his wife had cried out through a popular Abuja radio programme, Brekete Family Radio and Television programme on Human Rights Radio. This sparked wide condemnation before the Navy tried and subsequently dismissed him from service.

“We came for an oversight function, you all know every committee has the Constitutional power, so we came to the Navy to ask questions on tax payers’ money, how monies appropriated to the Navy is being spent.
“We came to ask questions on how interventions by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is being spent by the Navy. How the junior officers are being treated by the senior officers, including the famous case of Seaman Haruna, how he was suddenly dismissed. It is our responsibility on behalf of the Nigerian people to ask questions on these pertinent issues.

“We’ve asked them, but we are generally uncomfortable with them, so we’ve said that we are going to go on oversight visit, to perform a deep rooted oversight to know how resources are being applied and how disciplinary matters are being handled by the Navy.
“So by the special grace of God, it’s not a new thing, we are only doing our job. And I have told you without any fear of contradiction that the committee is not satisfied.
“Beyond the Seaman Abbas issue, we are not satisfied with the non-response to letters written by this committee, for documents demanded to guide us in our oversight function and so on, and the acquiring foreign platforms without the knowledge of this committee, and so many things.
“We cannot say anything now until we have gone to see those projects, the platforms that are being built, then we can come back here, and have another interaction”, he added.
In his brief earlier, the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, told the committee that the Navy was facing several challenges hinging on but not limited to “inadequate resources to effectively carry its operations.”
The CNS stated that beyond its military responsibility, the Navy also performs the function of policing the waterways, complementing the Nigeria Customs which has no deep-sea policing capacity.