The commander of 3 Brigade Kano, Brigadier General M.A. Sadiq, has been detained in a military police guardroom in Abuja over alleged diversion of rice palliatives, selling of military equipment, including generator sets and operational vehicles, to scrap yards.
Sources who spoke to Daily Nigerian on the condition of anonymity said the Nigerian Defence Headquarters gave the rice to the brigades nationwide for distribution to soldiers as a palliative. It was gathered that the Defence Headquarters had distributed the rice on at least three occasions to Nigerian soldiers, according to nominal roll.
Sources said that the embattled general, however, shared only 5kg bags once with the soldiers and sold the remaining batches. Apart from the rice scandal, Daily Nigerian gathered that the embattled general carted away equipment, including a MIKANO heavy-duty generator, at Military Training Camp, Falgore, Kano and sold them to metal scrap dealers.
This newspaper confirmed that the embattled military officer has been replaced by a former registrar of the Nigerian Defence Academy, Brigadier General A.M. Tukur. “Following these allegations, Brigadier General Sadiq has been detained in the guardroom and is facing interrogation by the special investigation branch of military police in Abuja.
“He was first invited to Abuja for questioning, and immediately ordered to be locked in the military police guardroom. There are mounting allegations against him. Already Brigadier General A.M. Tukur, who previously served as the Registrar of the Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA, has been appointed to take charge of the brigade.
“Full-scale investigations into the matter are ongoing. He will likely face charges at the court-martial,” the source added. A spokesman for the Nigerian Army, Major-General Onyema Nwachukwu, didn’t respond to calls and SMS sent to his known telephone number at the time of filing this report.
