Fight Against Terrorism: 'Military Has Received N130billion From Jan - April' - Okonjo-Iweala

While presenting the 2014 budget signed last week by Pres. Jonathan to newsmen, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Finance Minister revealed that the Nigerian military has received N130.7billion from the Federal Government from January to April 2014 and that another N3.8b has been approved by the president but was still being processed and will soon be released to the military.

She revealed this to deny claims by the Nigerian military and other security agencies that poor funding was undermining ongoing war against terrorism. Defending the huge amount being spent in the military, Dr Okonjo-Iweala said;

"Defence spending is top in everything. You know that military establishments need new things to assist them in their work, and ours will not be different. No budget will be enough to meet their demands but for now, I think the sector takes almost a trillion of the budget."

"The defence budget in 2014 is about N968.127 billion and we have disbursed N130.7 billion between January and April 2014, N85.9billion out of what has been disbursed is for personnel cost.