TheCable

Mansur Dan-Ali, minister of defence, has described recent report of Tukur Buratai, chief of army staff, owning property in Dubai as a calculated to distract the military from its war against insurgency.

Dan-Ali said it was needless to overstate the matter as Buratai had declared the assets twice as the commander of the multi-national joint task force and as the army chief.

Urging Nigerians to disregard it in its entirety, Dan-Ali said the current administration would not harbour persons with dubious character.

“The ministry of defence views this as an attempt by some unpatriotic and disgruntled elements to distract the leadership of the armed of forces of Nigeria from the successes of the war against terror,” he said in a statement issued on his behalf by Mohammed Ahmed, principal general staff officer at the ministry.

“It is on record that Lt.-Gen. Buratai has declared his assets as commander of the Multi National Joint task force and as the chief of army staff to the code of conduct Bureau.

“These facts are verifiable with the Code of Conduct Bureau.”

He said previous attempts to “distract and ridicule the personality” of the chief did not yield result, hence the resort to the property ownership saga.