By FG Purchases Armoured Tanks, Artillery Buses for Nigerian Army, Through Ministry of Defence
Dedeigbo Ayodeji
The Federal Government had purchased a new set of Armoured Tanks, and Artillery Vehicles of high-quality grade built in China for the Nigerian Army.
BlackBox Nigeria gathered that $152Million was used in purchasing the equipment. Speaking with the Newsmen, at Apapa port yesterday, Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Lamidi O. Adeosun, said that,” we are all here to witness the reception of the armaments of the Government of Nigeria, through the Ministry of Defence as procured by the Nigerian Army.
“The process of acquiring this has been on for some time but thank God they are coming in as at today, from what you can see, you can see how serious the Federal Government of Nigeria is in making sure not only that the army is equipped as necessary but to ensure that the insecurity problem we are having all over the country is tackled not only with trained personnel but with the required equipment.
The noted that the acquired equipment for the Army is a tip of the iceberg, as there is other equipment in transit. He stated further that there are different categories of equipment; heavy Tanks and the Light Tanks.
“And we have the two types of Artilleries heavy guns. They are all from China. They are very new ones as you can see for yourselves in fact, the latest in technology in Tanker Artillery Armament.
“Before today the first set of 15 forty feet Containers that were offloaded from the ship, are for spare parts accessories for this equipment; those ones are already out of port and on their way to their destinations.
He averred that those who are to operate the equipment have been trained in China and that if not for the COVID-19 that is ravaging everywhere and the lockdown we are still expecting, the trained personnel would have been training more people.
“What you expect in the Army is more robust operations to put behind us the menace of insecurity whether that of Boko-Haram, that of bandits or whatever.
“These are just the first batch of so many of them that are coming and you can see we have not even finished offloading this first batch you can see the number of different types. I may not be able to give you the exact number, but you can see for yourselves,” he concluded.
