Reps Fault Navy’s Acquisition of Foreign Platforms, Dismissal of Seaman Abbas, Other Issues
By Juliet Vincent
The House of Representatives Committee on Navy on Monday expressed displeasure with the Nigerian Navy for arbitrarily acquiring foreign platforms without its knowledge.
The Committee was piqued that the Navy failed to respond to its letters demanding for documents to facilitate effective oversight of the security agency.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon Yusuf Gagdi, said these while addressing reporters after a closed-door meeting with the leadership of the Navy, during an oversight visit, on Monday in Abuja.
“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 said
Gagdi also expressed displeasure with the Nigerian Navy over manner it handled the case of a personnel, Seaman Haruna Abbas, leading to his dismissal after six years in detention.
Seaman Abbas was allegedly held in detention for the period without trial over some disciplinary issues.
As a result, his wife had cried out for justice 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.
Gagdi said “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”.
In his brief earlier, the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, told the committee that the Navy was facing several challenges.
He said such challenges include but not limited to “inadequate resources to effectively carry its operations.”
He added 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.
