Senate Accuses CBN of Blocking Probe into Ways and Means Loans

The Senate adhoc Committee investigating Ways and Means facility granted to the federal government between 2015 to 2023 on Tuesday alleged that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was frustrating its efforts to uncover how the loans were spent.

The Chairman of the committee, Senator Isah Jibrin, made the allegation after receiving an interim report from its consultants at a meeting in Abuja.

He said the CBN had refused to make relevant documents available to the consultants to enable them complete their assignment.

The representative of the CBN, who is the Director of Banking Services, MallamHamisu Abdullahi, however told the Senate panel that the apex bank provided all the documents requested.

But Jibrin said: “None of the documents was submitted to us. We will not allow you to attend the next meeting because you have been coming here for the same reason.

“The least person that will attend the next meeting should be a deputy governor of CBN. What you are telling us is not the truth. We have not received the documents. I don’t want to deceive the public here”

Jibrin added that the aim of his committee’s assignment was to come up with a report within the shortest possible time, but lamented that the efforts were now being frustrated by CBN’s action.

He added: “The information we have here is not different from what we have had all along.

“What we did was to hand over the documents to the consultants, and when the consultants made available to us this interim report, our intention was to hold onto the interim report on the final report.

“We have now been compelled to make available this interim report to the general public so that they know that we let them know where the problem is.

“The problem is that the Central Bank of Nigeria has consistently denied us the documents that we need to complete this assignment. That is the truth.

“I was at the CBN sometime (ago), I met Bala the deputy governor and they promised but nothing came out of it. The clerk has been there several times. Nothing has come out of it.

“The consultants themselves even took it upon themselves to go with CBN directly, because we introduced them to CBN and nothing has come out of it.

“So let the Nigerian public know that this assignment has been hindered by the Central Bank of Nigeria. They will deny those documents. After this, you must avail us, or avail the consultants, all the documents that they require to complete this assignment.

“The reason for this meeting is to let everybody know why we have not been able to finish this assignment and it looks as if we have compromised. The answer is that we have not. It looks like we have compromised. I just want to say that we are going to sleep.”

According to the committee, Nigerians are interested in how the monies were utilised.

“Preliminary reports show that there are major infractions, especially on the part of the Central Bank of Nigeria. We want (you) to defend that. We need all the documents without exception. Whatever documents the consultants need to ensure that this job is completed efficiently and as soon as possible, you must provide.

“As it is, we don’t have a choice but to give them a time within which they must provide all the documents to the consultants. You just have to make sure that the documents are sent to the consultants,” the committee added.

But the CBN representative, Abdullahi, in his response said :“We provided a schedule showing summary of ways and means taking direct ways and means and indirect ways and means.

“That folder was sent to an email provided by this committee. There was an email provided, we sent, we replied that email three times. We can resend that document as we speak here. So we have responded, we are not aware of any document requested that we have not provided.

“If there is any document that is requested we have not provided, let us know. All the documents required are in that folder.

“So after the consultant reviews what is in that folder, if he needs additional documents, our expectation is that he should say one, two, three documents are not there to provide. We have provided it separately and we can provide that again”.

Sunday Aborisade

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