LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – The Senate panel said it has received more documents from the Office of the Accountant General (AGF), following the controversial 30tn Ways and Means loans secured by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
As a result, the panel is set to resume physical sitting after studying the documents.
The loans was said to be have been obtained by the Federal Government through the Godwin Emefiele-led Central Bank of Nigeria.
The panel had written to the OAGF seeking additional documents to deepen its prone of the controversial N30tn loan.
However, multiple sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on the matter on Sunday, confirmed that the documents arrived at the National Assembly on Thursday.
“The documents from the Office of the Accountant General regarding the probe of the N30tn Ways and Means came on Thursday; the documents have been given to the chairman and the members of the panel,” one of the Senate sources told our correspondent.
Also confirming the development, the Chairman of the Panel, senator Isah Jibrin ( APC, Kogi East), said the AGF had sent the documents to the National Assembly.
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He said, “ Yes, the documents have come from the AGF and have been distributed to all panel members. At the moment, we are all studying it and once that is concluded we will resume physical meetings hopefully by next week.”
He added, “Nigerians can be assured that we will ensure due diligence and see that we do not let them down. Like I earlier said, we had never stopped working on the probe, we just needed more documents and now that we have them, nothing can hold us back.”
On Tuesday, February 20, the Senate resolved to investigate the N30tn loan, citing that the alleged reckless spending of the overdraft from the CBN largely contributed to the current food and security crises in the country.
After its inauguration, the panel identified 13 infractions allegedly committed in the process of obtaining the loan from the CBN.
Showing proof of the letter sent to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Jibrin had said, “We have not gone into limbo; we only needed additional documents from the Accountant-General’s office to continue the interface. The amount under probe is N30tn. I don’t know why people are spreading falsehood to achieve a selfish purpose.”
The letter dated June 19, 2024, and signed by Jibrin was titled: ‘Request for Submission of Additional Information’.
Recall that during the Ninth Assembly, President Buhari, in a letter dated December 20, 2022, requested the restructuring of the accumulated N22.7 tn Ways and Means loans, alongside an additional N1 trillion primarily for funding the N819.5bn 2022 supplementary budget, totalling N23.7tn.
In his request, President Buhari explained, “The Ways and Means are advances from the Central Bank of Nigeria to the federal government for emergency funding due to delayed fiscal deficits. As of December 19, 2022, the balance of Ways and Means was N22.7tn.
“I have approved the securitisation of these balances under the following terms: Amount, N23.7tn; Tenure, 40 years; Moratorium on principal repayment, three years; Interest rate, 9 per cent. Your concurrence and approval are sought to allow for the implementation of the same.”
Punch