The Minister of Defence, Mohammed Abubakar, has urged the House of Representatives to include an additional 50 Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) in the 2025 budget to enhance efforts to eliminate banditry across the country.
Speaking on Tuesday during the 2025 budget defence session held by the House Committee on Defence in Abuja, Mr. Abubakar expressed confidence that with the deployment of these APCs, the fight against banditry could be resolved within two months.
“The Ministry of Defence is supposed to provide some equipment for some of the zones, but we cannot.
“Out of what we had in 2024, we were only able to provide just 20 Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) but what can 20 APCs do.
“If we are able to have 50 APCs that can go into the bush to flush out those criminals. I assure you, within two months, we will finish the issue of banditry but there is no provision for that in the 2025 budget.
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“I believe this House will consider more funding to the Ministry of Defense, so that we can be able to provide some equipment to some fresh areas of attacks,” he said.
The minister said that there was need to review the budget of the ministry to also provide for the welfare of officers and men of the military.
He said that N20 billion is required to address the backlog of the Group Life Insurance for military personnel.
Mr Abubakar said that the ministry has not been able to pay some entitlement for military personnel in theaters of operations, urging the House to squeeze and add more funding to the ministry.
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