Aregbesola lands in trouble over 700m funds
The Senate has set Interior Minister Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola a deadline of twenty-four hours to account for the N700 million that the ministry received from Service Wide Votes (SWV) for the monitoring of the governorship elections in Ondo and Edo.
Following an explanation from the ministry that the N700 million would be reported by the Nigerian Civil Defense Corps, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, handed the order to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Shuaib Belgore (NSDC).
The Committee stated that the funds were released in two batches, N400 million for the Ondo governorship election and N300 million for the Edo governorship election, in a document called the Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) that was produced by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
According to the document, N400 million had been given to the Ministry of Interior for logistical and operational support related to the governor of Ondo State election.
The second announcement stated that N300 million had been made available to the Ministry of Interior for the purpose of supporting operations and logistics related to the governor of Edo State election.
The Permanent Secretary clarified, “We just submit requests on behalf of the NSDC; the NSDC will account for the money.”
The excuse was not tenable, according to the Committee Chairman, Senator Urhoghide, who thought the response was improper because “the Ministry collected the money, not the NSDC,” who did not collect the money.
Urhoghide added, “NSDC has their own queries, they are appearing before the Panel to react to the one that bears their names, and they have the money handed to them directly. The NSDC will only go before the Committee to account for the money sought individually from Service Wide Votes.
According to our records, your ministry, not NSDC, will defend the expenses.
The Ministry was therefore given 24 hours to defend the N700 million for the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo by the Chairman.
