Senate Demands Explanation of N7.5B Secret Withdrawal From Minister of Finance and Others

The Chairman, Senate Public Accounts Committee, on Wednesday gave the Ministry of Finance, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and the Office of the National Security Adviser till Tuesday next week to explain an alleged ‘secret withdrawal of N7.5bn from the two percent National Automotive Council Design and Development Council Levy Account.

The account is domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The Committee had two weeks ago while scrutinising the 2015 Auditor General for the Federation’s report summoned the affected agencies to appear before it.

The representatives of the affected agencies were not present at the scheduled meeting on Wednesday.

The Director General of NADDC, Jelani Tukur, presented the details of the withdrawal before the committee on Wednesday.

He said that the agency had already written to the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed and the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, on the issue.

He said N3.7bn was withdrawn as loan to NAFCON, N3.8bn for security personnel car loan scheme and another withdrawal of N2.3bn as loan to Steyrs Nigeria Limited.

He added that the agency had also written a letter to remind the Niger Insurance Plc on the agreement reached on July 9th 2020 as ordered by the committee.

The first letter was written to Minister of Finance and Accountant General of the Federation on 23 April, 2021 and were delivered to the minister and Accountant General of the Federation on 26 April.

The second was written to the Minister on 26th of April and was delivered to the Minister on 27th April while those to the Accountant General of the Federation were delivered on 26th of April.

The committee chaired by Senator Mathew Urhoghide said that all parties involved in the withdrawal of money must be in attendance next week Tuesday.