Friday, February fourteenth, the UN says at least 22 people have been killed in a village in the Northwest region of Cameroon. Over half of those killed were children. No one has claimed responsibility for Friday’s incident but the opposition parties blame the killing on the government.
Nigeria arraigns more than 300 firms over arms fraud contracts
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Nigeria has indicted more than 300
local and foreign companies and individuals, including senior military
officers, over an arms scandal.
They are accused of defrauding the
country of $241m in fake contracts, a government statement says.
President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a
probe last year after funds meant to buy weapons to fight Boko Haram militants
were allegedly diverted.
More than $35m has been recovered in
the investigation so far.
The contracts were awarded by the
office of the national security adviser from 2011 until 2015, the statement
from the office of the president says.
It lists all the companies and individuals
indicted including former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, who is facing
separate fraud charges linked to the arms scandal.
Mr Dasuki, who served under former
President Goodluck Jonathan, has previously denied the allegations of corruption
in relation to phantom contracts.
The investigation was done by a
special committee appointed President Buhari, who came to office in May partly
on a promise to clamp down on corruption.
The committee found that contracts
were awarded "without any contractual agreement or evidence of jobs
executed", the statement says.
It gave an example of how one of the
companies, Societe D'Equipement International, "was overpaid to the tune
of $8.9m and $7m".
Image copyright Getty Images Image
caption President Buhari won the election on a promise to deal with corruption
and Boko Haram.
The scale of the alleged fraud is
massive considering the number of companies and individuals involved.
This is the first time such a
detailed report has been made public and the fact that both serving and retired
military officers have been indicted appears to show the president's commitment
to rooting out endemic corruption that has stagnated the development of Africa's
largest economy and oil producer.
One thing that underlines the
suspicious nature of some of these deals is the status of the companies
involved - it appears that some of them were just set up for the purpose of
these phantom contracts.
Even in situations where the
contracts were executed, it is alleged that some officials who owned these
firms through proxies helped them to avoid paying tax.
Apart from cash, the government says
it has seized some properties belonging to some of the indicted individuals.
Many Nigerians will welcome the news
that the government is not only uncovering who allegedly looted funds but has
also started recovering some of it.
Under the previous government, some
soldiers complained that despite the military's huge budget, they were
ill-equipped to fight Boko Haram.
Even though the militants have lost
most of the areas they once controlled, they are still able to carry out
attacks in some rural areas.
In the latest incident, 16 women
were abducted from a village in the north-eastern state of Adamawa.
The women from Sabon Garin Madagali
village were seized while fetching firewood and fishing in a nearby river,
residents told the BBC Hausa service.
The Islamist insurgency has killed
at least 20,000 people in north-eastern Nigeria since 2009.
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