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Senate unaware of N22tn loans Nigerian govt took from CBN – Ndume

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The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, Ali Ndume, said on Friday evening that the Senate was not aware of the N22 trillion Ways and Means Loans offered to the Federal Government by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Ndume, who featured on Channels Television’s programme, Politics Today, noted that the National Assembly only knew about the loans after President Muhammadu Buhari forwarded a letter to the Senate, requesting its approval for the restructuring of the advances the federal government took from the apex bank.

The upper legislative chamber on Thursday stood down the president’s request to restructure the loans.

Ndume said: “We didn’t know. We only knew on December 20 when Mr. President wrote to the Senate, asking us to approve N22 trillion that was spent from the CBN through the ways and means.

“That was what triggered the argument, and most importantly, it was just a two-page report, there were no details as to what the money was used for. And it would have been ridiculous or a disservice if we had just gone ahead to approve it.

“It is wrong and this thing has been going on even before Buhari became the president. The illegality has been going on and I think when he met it like that, they continued on that path.

READ ALSO: Senate suspends move to restructure N22.7tn loan, as lawmakers accuse Buhari of breaching CBN rule

“ But now he realised that actually, the National Assembly has to approve it. But then I asked my colleagues that time when the money is already spent, you don’t approve it, you only ratify it. Then that brings us to the constitutional matter of whether even the National Assembly has the right to do what it is asked to do.

“No, we didn’t reject it, we stood it down and set up a special committee to look at it. And even if we get the details, my question remains do we even have the right? Approval is when you seek the consent of the National Assembly to do something, not when you have already done it.”

The lawmaker also urged the CBN to extend the deadline for the withdrawal of old Naira notes from circulation.

The Senate had during the week asked the apex bank to extend the deadline for the withdrawal of the old Naira notes from January 31, 2023, to June 30, 2023.

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