Army Removes Journalist From WhatsApp Group For Asking Questions About N2.6trillion Arms Budget

A defence journalist identified as Amadin Uyi has been removed by the Nigerian Army, from its Department of Public Relations WhatsApp group for asking about the N2.6trillion military spending on arms.

Uyi who happens to be the Abuja Bureau Chief of News Central TV was removed on Wednesday, a day after the Chief of the Army Staff, Lt Gen Ibrahim Attahiru, at the quarterly conference in Abuja, admitted that the military was short of logistics’ supply for the Boko Haram insurgency war.

The journalist had asked to know how the military budget from 2015 to 2019 was spent under the former service chiefs.

However, the military personnel removed him from the Whatsapp group, and no answer was provided to the question.

Uyi had asked, “The COAS conference has posed many questions that need answers. The Chief of Army Staff says he will address logistics challenges; this is shocking because about 2.6 trillion naira has been spent between 2015 and 2019. We want to know what he meant by this statement.”

“He also said he had given the directive that more weapons be procured; the question is, with N2.6trillion spent in 4 years, does it mean that funds were not enough to buy enough weapons?”

“Thirdly, he (The COAS) talked about back-loading damaged and unserviceable equipment in the theatre and instructing that they be repaired immediately. Does it mean they were abandoned in the past; I will need answers to these.”

Reacting to his removal from the army group, NewsCentral TV said it “stands By Amadin Uyi” in a series of tweets on its Twitter timeline on Friday.

“We also request, for the sake of its credibility, that the Nigerian Army address these questions raised by our correspondent, #AmadinUyi, who has conducted himself with the utmost professionalism since this went down,” the station added.