Army General threatened to kill President over defence contract

A Brigadier-General in the Nigerian Army, Lym Hassan, has reportedly been caught on tape making a threat against the life of

According to a report by TheCable, Hassan, who was the coordinator of peace keeping at the Ministry of Defence, is currently facing a court-martial after his arraignment before a military court on October 30, 2017.

He was arraigned on two charges of spreading rumours about the president's death and demanding $600,000 bribe from a defence contractor.

President Buhari had approved the sum of $1,464,750 on September 26, 2016, for the relocation and refurbishment of Level 2 Ministry Hospital under the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) following a directive from the UN.

The president approved the same contract again on November 9, 2016, this time for the sum of $1,000,000, with the contract awarded to Opems Integrated Concepts Ltd in February 2017.

Even though the company was directed to execute the project before April 2017, it was never done in that time, leading to a violation of the August 2017 deadline for the relocation of the hospital.

After the failure to execute the contract, the Ministry of Defence had issued a directive to serving military officers to execute it through the supply of medical equipment as well as dismantling and re-assembling the hospital at a new camp.

This had prompted Brigadier-General Hassan to reportedly demand $600,000 from Opems, unaware that he was being recorded on tape.

When he was asked by the contractor if he wasn't afraid of being caught up in President Buhari's anti-corruption war, Hassan allegedly replied, "If the president queries us, we will eliminate him."

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Despite Hassan being the only military personnel being prosecuted for the embezzlement of the original contract sum, TheCable reported that insiders in the Ministry of Defence said he was only a scapegoat and many others allegedly shared the money.

They have demanded that President Buhari set up an independent probe into the affair to uncover the other culprits.