The Senate said it will quiz some officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria on how the N30tn Ways and Means loan was obtained and spent by the Federal Government during the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
The Chairman of the Senate Ad-hoc Committee Senator Isah Jibrin, who made the disclosure in an exclusive interview with our correspondent, also revealed that the panel would commence the probe this week.
The Senate had on Tuesday appointed Jibrin as the chairman of the panel to probe the N30tn Ways and Means loan released by the then CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, to the Buhari administration.
The ‘Ways and Means’ is an overdraft taken directly from the central bank to fund budget deficits or address national contingency needs. This usually follows the approval of the executive arm of government and is meant to be ratified by the parliament.
The Senate had last week Tuesday resolved to probe the N30tn facility, stating that the alleged reckless spending of the overdraft collected from the CBN largely accounted for the food and security crises currently facing the country.
The red chamber then resolved to set up an Ad -hoc committee to investigate how the fund was spent, explaining that the details of how it was spent were deliberately not made available to the National Assembly.
However, the chairman of the panel, also known as Echocho, said the panel had started some background checks based on some documents in its possession.
In an exclusive interview with our correspondent on Thursday, he said, “We are looking at next week for the investigation at the committee level, but as chairman, I am not waiting for that. I have some documents; I want to write to CBN to provide me with information on some areas.
“Because Ways and means cover very large latitude, so based on the information that I have now, I am going to write to seek clarifications on certain issues thereafter the committee will meet.
He added that the Ways and Means loan also came up in December 2022 towards the end of the ninth Senate.
Senator added, “I have some documents and I want to leverage on those documents by going through them to ask questions from the CBN to seek further clarifications. Thereafter, we will now invite CBN officials who were engaged under Emefiele, although he is no longer there.
“They were a part of it, they have to come and explain to us. The terms of reference are very simple.
“These monies were given out. We want to know the agencies that benefited from those monies.
“We also want to know the individual Nigerians who benefited. We want to know the terms and conditions. The CBN is not Father Christmas. They are loans; we want to know the beneficiaries of those loans.
