Security experts, including a retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Adedayo Adeoye, have admonished the Federal Government to clean up its sordid human rights record if it is interested in consummating the $875m defence equipment deal with the United States.
The experts, including a former Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Austin Iwar, and a retired Assistant Director, Department of State Services, Denis Amachree, admonished the FG to address concerns of the US.
United States lawmakers stopped the proposed sale of attack helicopters to Nigeria amid mounting concerns about President Muhammadu Buhari’s human rights record as the regime grappled with multiple security crises.
Top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reportedly delayed clearing a proposed sale of 12 AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters and accompanying defence systems to the Nigerian military over the Federal Government’s poor human rights record.
While noting that the government could approach other countries for military hardware if the US refused to conclude the deal, the retired AIG observed that the US as an influential nation, could prevail on other countries not to sell the equipment to Nigeria.
