The Federal Government has set aside N575.6bn in its special funding budget to boost the fight against insecurity and prosecute the ongoing anti-insurgency war.

Under this, a total of N184.25bn was approved for the purchase of military equipment, arms and ammunition.

This latest figure was contained in the N2.18tn supplementary budget for the 2023 fiscal year approved by the Federal Executive Council on Monday.

Details of the 2023 supplementary budget obtained by our correspondent on Tuesday indicated that out of this N552.6bn, the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces have been allocated over N147.03bn to upscale internal operations against Boko Haram, bandits, kidnappers and other anti-insurgency wars.

Of the eight military and defence agencies allocated the total sum, the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air Force and the Nigerian Navy will get N211.5bn, N112.2bn and N62.8bn, respectively. The three forces got the largest chunk of the military budget.

Out of this amount, recurrent expenditure will gulp over N245.1bn and capital expenditure, N329.99bn.

Speaking at the end of this week’s Federal Executive Council meeting at the Aso Villa, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, said the budget is to “fund urgent issues including national defence and security.”

Meanwhile, the federal government has approved the sum of N16.02bn to boost the fight against oil theft in the Niger Delta region.

The project code-named Operation Dakatar da Barawo means ‘stop the thief’ in Hausa language and is domiciled under the Nigerian Navy.

The operation launched in September 2022 is a special operation launched by the Nigerian Navy in collaboration with the Nigerian National Petroleum Limited to stop oil thieves from further sabotaging the nation’s oil and gas installation in the Niger Delta region.

The government also plans to spend N5.09bn on the president’s yacht. (Punch)

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