N33bn IDP fund: Senate may probe Osinbajo, NEMA DG

The Senate says it may set up an ad-hoc committee, on resumption from its one-week recess, to probe the alleged mismanagement of N33bn currently rocking the Presidential Intervention Programme for the North-East.

The Vice-Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, told SUNDAY PUNCH on Friday that the upper legislative chamber would commence the probe as soon as the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee concluded its own investigation.

Already, the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee, probing the alleged scam, had said Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, in his capacity as the chairman of the programme, and the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency, Mr Mustapha Maihaja, were culpable.

The Senate spokesman spoke just as NEMA stated that the probe by the House into the N5.8bn Presidential intervention funds, approved by the vice president for the North-East, was shocking and should not be directed at NEMA alone.

The Reps panel also specifically indicted Osinbajo for allegedly approving N5.8bn North-East Intervention Fund, which it claimed was illegal.

Osinbajo had dismissed the allegation, stating that the government was obliged to make an emergency response to the humanitarian crisis in the geopolitical zone.

The senate spokesman, in a telephone interview with The PUNCH correspondent in Abuja, said the Senate would carry out an independent investigation into the issue considering the weight of the allegations.

The PUNCH, November 18, 2018

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