The Senate panel probing the N30tn Ways and Means loans secured from the Godwin Emefiele-led Central Bank of Nigeria by the Federal Government has received more documents from the Office of the Accountant General.
As a result, the panel is set to resume physical sitting after studying the documents.
The panel had written to the OAGF seeking additional documents to deepen its prone of the controversial N30tn loan obtained by the President Muhammadu-led administration.
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.
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.
However, a media Report (Not PUNCH) had said that the committee had gone into limbo after finding out that the Ways and Means loans approved under Emefiele were about N7tn and not N30tn as claimed by the Senate.
Responding to the media report, Jibrin clarified that the figures under investigation were not in dispute.
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.”
PUNCH
