***Probe to commence this week in earnest
The chairman of the Senate adhoc committee mandated to investigate the humongous N30 trillion ‘Ways and Means’, released as loan to the Federal Government during the former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Senator Jibrin Isah Echocho has indicated that his panel will commence work in earnest next week.
Senator Echocho said CBN officials would be summoned to answer questions
The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday appointed Senator Jibrin Isah who represents Kogi East Senatorial District as Chairman of Senate Adhoc Committee to probe the humongous N30 trillion ‘Ways and Means’, released as loan to the former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
The ‘Ways and Means’ is an overdraft taken directly from the Central Bank of Nigeria to solve contingency needs of the nation following approval and directive of the executive arm of government which would have to be ratified by the parliament.
However, during a debate on ‘Ways and Means’ lastweek the senate was thrown into a rowdy session when the motion was raised without details of how the fund was spent, a development that prompted Senator Ali Ndume representing Borno South Senatorial district to insist that details of ‘Ways and Means’ must be provided according to parliamentary rules.
The senator however on wednesday said he was doing some background checks,
“We are looking at Next week the investigation at the committee level but as chairman I am not waiting for that. I have some documents, I want to write to CBN to provide me information on some areas.
“Because Ways and means covers very large latitude, so based on the information that I have now, I am going to write to seek clarifications on certain issues thereafter the committee will meet.
“I don’t just want the committee to convene and we have nothing to discuss, I have some documents which I will circulate with committee members.
He said, the Ways and Means came up in December 2022 at the tail end of the 9th Senate.
“I have some documents and I want to leverage on those documents by going through them to ask questions from CBN to seek further clarifications. “Thereafter we will now invite CBN officials those who were engaged, Emefiele is no longer there, but people worked with Emefiele. They are there, they have to come and explain to us. “The terms of reference is very simple. This monies were given out. We want to know the agencies that benefited from those monies. We also want to know the individual Nigerians who benefited. We want to know the terms and conditions. CBN is not father Christmas. They are loans, we want to know the beneficiaries of those loans. “What are the terms and conditions of those loans. Who are the loans collectors used so that in the case of d2fault we have collected also to fall on? Have they been repaid?
“What are the repayment schedules? Are they in line with the repayment schedules? In case of default do we have collateral. So those are the issues, we are not witchhunting anybody.
“This country belongs to all of us, we want to know what actually transpired because we are where we are today because of those reckless exercises.
“I will call it reckless because when you are taking a decision as an economist, because I want to believe, we have economists there, when you take a particular decision, you should be able to ascertain the possible impact of that decision on the larger community.
“You either withdraw or you modify, that is why I am happy that Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has been composed. You know the composition of the MPC is crucial because that is where policy measures are taken. You need to look at it, if this variable is this, and the state of the economy is XYZ, what do you do? “How do you tinker with some of those variables so that the larger society will improve? That is why we want to unravel all that happened not to witchhunt anybody but to know the extent to which Ways and means advances have performed and then other decision can be taken thereafter.