A Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development, Professor Jibrin Ibrahim has alleged that there is an agreement that indicates that the US Military Forces departing Niger will not report to the Nigerian government once they move their base into Nigeria.
He stated that the hundreds of US troops would be directly transported from the airport to the designated base. He further noted that the agreement stipulates that all imported equipment remains exempt from inspection by Nigerian authorities. He stated that Nigerian government and military officials are expressly prohibited from visiting these bases to ascertain their activities.
He said in an interview with Channels TV, ''The recent information that we have acquired over this matter is that when Niger asked the Americans to leave, they released the secret agreement between the United state and Niger. It is in the agreement that none of the US military boots will report to the Nigerian government, they will be taken from the Airport to the base.
All the equipment that is brought in cannot be inspected by the Nigerian government. No Nigerian government or military official is allowed to visit any of these bases to find out what they are doing. Therefore they are bringing in these hundreds of soldiers and they are given total diplomatic status and protection from our law. We have seen in recent times in Japan, it's been an ongoing issue. An American Soldier from the base goes out in a town, kills a woman and the Japanese governor has no right to prosecute.''