A fresh ‘1.4 million corruption scandal’ has rocked the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, with the Minister
of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, at the center of the indignity.
As exclusively reported by The Cable, Dan-Ali, alongside Danjuma Nanfo, the Defence Ministry’s immediate past Permanent Secretary, and Brig. Gen. LYM Hassan in charge of peacekeeping, have been fingered in the alleged sharing of funds meant for the relocation and renovation of Nigeria’s Level 2 Ministry Hospital in Mali.
The controversial contract which has reportedly landed Brig. Gen. Hassan in detention is being sponsored by the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).
Funds from the $1.4 million were allegedly shared among the aforementioned without any renovation executed. The Cable gathered that the UN Level hospital is a “brigade/sector” level surgical facility established in 2008, and which caters to life, limb and organ-saving surgical operations.
The scam reportedly came to bare when the UN expected Nigeria to relocate from a temporary camp to the new UN Super Camp in Timbuktu, where the facility ought to have been domiciled.
The Ministry of Defence, according to the report, quickly contracted inexperienced contractors to handle the installation of the Level 2 hospital without observing initial due process of the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP).
President Muhammadu Buhari had reportedly approved the contract at the sum of $1,464,750 in care of certain contractor, but that the Ministry of Defence turned back to re-award the same to another contractor at the sum of $1 million, short by $464,750.
The Defence Ministry, in re-awarding the contract, stated that “the contract price is fixed and no request for variation will be entertained. It is expected that you will relocate the items in good conditions and perform to the highest standard all the obligations under the contract and to remind you also that it is not transferable”.
Confirming Brig. Gen. Hassan’s detention over the matter, Col. Tukur Gusau, told The Cable that: “The matter is already in court. How do you expect us to comment? You can go to the court-martial and talk to them if they are willing to talk to you. We cannot talk to you since the issue is already before them”.
Recall that the fresh scandal comes close on the heels of the fraudulent reinstatement of sacked ex-pension boss, Abdulrasheed Maina, into the Federal Civil Service, by top officials of the Buhari administration.
