Reps summon Armed Forces for shunning locally-made ammunition

The House of Representatives Committee on Defence has summoned the Armed Forces, especially the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Air Force for shunning arms and ammunition produced locally by the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria and importing them instead.

The committee issued the summons in Abuja on Thursday at the budget defense session held with the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria, where the Director-General, Major General Hassan Tafida, decried that products manufactured by the corporation were not being procured, except by the Nigerian Army.

The chairman of the committee, Babajimi Benson, asked Tafida how many products DICON had exported.

The DG noted that the corporation was meant to service the Nigerian Armed Forces, saying, “By design, DICON was limited to only provide products to the Armed Forces and security agencies and not beyond the borders of Nigeria.”

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When asked about those who patronise DICON, the DG said, “We only have the Nigerian Army as the major customer of DICON’s products, not any other. The others are just doing it because of exigency now.”

He added, “The perception and notion by most of the security agencies is that DICON was only meant for the Army, so they go outside. Even the Army goes outside to augment what they get from DICON because of the state of the machines. The machines installed since 1964 have not been upgraded. So, right now, the production capacity is just about 5 million rounds instead of about 20 million rounds annually.”

The committee consequently resolved that the Armed Forces be summoned to explain why they shun DICON.

In his ruling, Benson said, “Clerk, please ensure you invite the other services here. We want to understand why they are not being patriotic enough to purchase from our own DICON.”

Earlier in his opening address, Benson noted that the lawmakers were pleased that since its establishment in 1964, DICON’s role in the production of military hardware had significantly impacted the Nigerian Armed Forces in diverse ways.