EFCC probes N’Assembly’s N300bn allocation in 2014, 2015 budgets

7 years ago

EFCC probes N’Assembly’s N300bn allocation in 2014, 2015 budgets

The Federal Government has started investigating how the 2014 and 2015 budgetary allocations of the National Assembly were expended.

Saturday PUNCH gathered on Friday that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had demanded details of the budgets totalling N300bn from the National Assembly clerk, Sani Omolori.

Besides, he was requested to produce details of the contracts awarded by the assembly.

It was learnt that some principal officers of the seventh and the current eighth National Assembly would be invited in the coming months for interrogation.

Investigations showed that although the commission had received a petition from a former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin, on the alleged padding of the 2016 budget, it is extending its investigations to 2014 and 2015 fiscal years.

Jibrin, in his petition, had alleged that the Speaker of the House, Mr. Yakubu Dogara and three other principal officers padded the 2016 budget.

A top official of the EFCC confided in Saturday PUNCH that although Jibrin’s petition bothered on the 2016 budget, funds had not been released for the projects allegedly inserted in the budget.

The source stated that the commission was focusing on 2014 and 2015, when the National Assembly got N150bn annually as its allocations.

It was learnt that for the seventh National Assembly, principal officers including the then Senate President, Senator David Mark, and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, would be invited by the commission.

For the eight National Assembly, besides Dogara, the current Senate President, Dr.Bukola Saraki; Ekweremadu and the Deputy Speaker, Sulaiman Lasun, will also be quizzed.

The official stated, “You know the National Assembly has never made its budget public. Besides Jibrin’s petitions, there are others that will make investigations into the 2014 and 2015 budgets inevitable.”

For example, a group, the Anti-Corruption Unit of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, in a petition to the EFCC, alleged that N418m contracts were awarded in 2014 to firms linked to Jibrin.

The contracts included the supply of beans and millets to Kano State awarded to Eleku Construction Limited.

When contacted, the EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed that the commission had requested for 2014 and 2015 budgets from the National Assembly.