As the Nigerian Senate continues with the scrutiny of the 2020 Appropriation Bill submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari in October, its Committee on Trade and Investment said it has “uncovered’’N15 billion voted for a private company in the Trade Ministry’s budget.
To this end, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr Niyi Adebayo and the Acting Managing Director of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Mr Terhembe Nongo, have been summoned over the matter.
The summonses followed a report of the committee that the Minister and the Permanent Secretary in the ministry had failed to defend the allocation during a budget defence session at the committee level.
The Committee’s Chairman, Sen. Rose Oko, said the committee was asked to make available from the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, the shareholding structure, but that the document presented did not reveal the identity of the shareholders.
She told the Senate Committee on Appropriation that the committee had requested the NEPZA to give full details of what happened.
“Its response was that the money was allocated in 2017 when the company was not in existence.
“The company was registered in 2018; meanwhile, the money was already allocated in 2017 which is domiciled in the CBN.
“ More so, N15 billion was released two days ago to the same company,’’ Oko revealed.
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