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Mustapha Maihaja, Director General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), on Tuesday discloser that some serving Senators and members of the House of Representatives witnessed the distribution of relief materials to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) across the North East geopolitical zones.
Maihaja who spoke during the resumed public hearing into the alleged breach of public trust leveled against NEMA, denied allegations that relief materials were not distributed to six States in North East since he assumed office in 2017.
The NEMA helmsman disclosed that the Minister of Finance who chaired the Committee involved the Governors of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states in the planning and approval states.
According to him, the Committee on completion of its assignment wrote a memo to the Acting President for final approval.
Maihaja maintained that the Agency also visited the State Governors across the geopolitical zones, as part of collaborative efforts aimed at expediting action on the initiative.
He said contrary to accusations that neither state governments nor officials of State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) were involved in the distribution of the materials, state officials and some Federal lawmakers actually witnessed the distribution of the materials in their respective states.
He said: “The issue at stake was a Presidential intervention and that was the time I took over and I was invited on 26th May to join the team.
“A sub committee head by Minister of Budget and National Planning held meetings with Borno, Yobe and others where the issue and distribution was discussed.
“They were part of the programme. We moved to site together with them. There’s perfect collaboration with the states right from the on-set.
“This is not an issue of telling lies, the problem here could be communication gap. We worked together and the materials got to the right place,” Maihaja stressed.
He added that: “Senator Bukar and Honourable Karasuwa participated in the distribution in Yobe State and other lawmakers in other states too. The problems might be communication gap.”
Speaking earlier, representatives of State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) from Yobe, Bauchi, Taraba and Gombe alleged that they were not formally notified of the distribution of the relief materials to the IDPs.
In its submission, Bauchi state delegation who confirmed knowledge of the distribution of the materials however argued that the State government was not involved in the distribution.
According to the leader of the delegation, the State Governor directed the officials to provide support for NEMA during the distribution of the relief materials.
However, Taraba State delegation declined knowledge about in the planning excluded from the distribution.
Also speaking, Gombe delegation claimed that it has no IDPs camps and has no use for relief food materials but prefer support in the areas of health and education infrastructure, adding that the state was totally unaware of the distribution of the relief materials in the state.
In his intervention, Abdulraham Shaibu, member of the Committee alleged that NEMA Director General changed the system of distribution by not involving lawmakers in the distribution.
“Why were our members not involved in the distribution? In 2016, we were asked to nominate members for the distribution, we were involved and every wards in the three Local government in my Constituency got the materials,” he noted.
Speaking at the opening of the investigate hearing, Isa Ali-led, chairman, House Committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness, who frowned at the report trending on social media and traditional media, argued that the Committee had no issue with the office of the Vice President.
Isa-Ali noted that the Legislature is on the same page with the Executive arm of government in tackling issue of corruption and ensure value for money.
He also noted that the Committee will not be intimidated or distracted in the ongoing investigation.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
