The House of Representatives Committee on Defence has assured the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) in Kaduna and other defence institutions that the 9th National Assembly would work with it to turn Nigeria into a military power house in Africa.
The committee chairman, Hon Babajimi Benson, said during oversight visit of committee to the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC) Jaji, the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), and the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), in Kaduna Tuesday.
“The 9th assembly has for the first time put military in its agenda. One of the things we put is to encourage home grown production of military hardware and software.
“We at the 9th assembly want to prioritize the armed forces because a peaceful country is a wealthy country.”
Benson explained that the visitation was to assess how far the tax payers money have been judiciously utilized by the commands, adding that the committee was pleased with what it saw in the various institutions.
“Today we are here and we have seen outstanding feat by Nigerian army. They created MRAP they named after it Ezugwu who created it as a serving Major General. We have started manufacturing and producing them locally, and definitely we are in right projection.”
The committee chairman assured that the NASS will push for the to release of funds appropriated to all defence institutions and formations to enable them execute new projects and complete ongoing ones.
Benson acknowledged the development being achieved in the institutions and pledged that more funds would be appropriated for effective training and re-training of military personnel.
Earlier, the Commandants, AFCSC, AVM Lawal Alao and NDA, Maj-Gen Jamil Sarham, as well as the Director General DICON, Maj-Gen Victor Ezugwu, told the committee that the money budgeted for them was judiciously used.
They urged the committee for more funds to complete ongoing projects, training, innovations and researches.
The committee later inspected completed and the ongoing projects at the three military institutions. (NAN)
