|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The last is yet to be heard over the financial scandal rocking the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) as members of House of Representatives launched fresh probe into $202 million security intervention fund allocated to the agency.
According to Aminu Jaji, chairman, House Committee on Public Safety and National Intelligence, total sum of $289 million was allocated to the agency under the President Goodluck Jonathan adminstration.
Out of the the sum of $43 million which was transferred by the erstwhile NIA Director-General, Ayo Oke, led to his probe and exit, while the balance of $44 million was moved recently to safe custody on the approval of the newly appointed NIA Director General, Ahmed Abubakar.
Jaji who spoke at the investigative public hearing held behind closed doors, at the weekend, in tandemn with the House resolution on the alleged missing $44 million, argued that the new NIA chief confirmed that the money was moved to saf custody.
“We had a meeting too with the NSA today. We later discovered from our meeting since last week that the $44 million isn’t missing. For that one, I can tell you they moved the money from one place to another. We’re still investigating. If we get 60 to 70 percent of what we’re supposed to get, then we can tell you. But for now, I’ll tell you categorically that the money isn’t missing. They only moved it from the agency to another place pending when all these issues surrounding the agency are resolved.
“If you remember, this $44 million is part of the $289 million approved to the then DG, Ayo Oke. You know that in April last year, there was the issue of $43 million found in Ikoyi. He tried to say that the $44 million and the $43 million are part of the $289 million. But for us, we’re still working to see where the remaining $202m was placed. We only know about the $43 million recovered in Ikoyi and the $44 million recovered from their vault.
“In the course of our investigation, we’ll come up with where the $289 million really is, not the $43 million and not the $44 million but the entire amount,” he told Legislative Correspondents after the prolonged meeting.
While responding to question n whether the money was appropriated for by the National Aseembly, Jaji who answered in the negative, said: “No.” They got the money in the name of intervention. But since they said it was an intervention they got during the past administration, maybe for whatever reason, Ayo Oke failed to disclose the amount to the present administration.
“Even the NSA was saying it was when this committee started working that he got to know that NIA was given $289 million. You can see these are issues that have to be managed. But all we’re after here is to safeguard the institution, that’s NIA. From there, we can take the issue to see who are involved in the issue and they should be dealt with according to the law,” the chairman said.
While clarifying further issues on the $289 million given to the agency, he confirmed authoritatively that none of the stakeholders invited have been able to give clue on the balance of $202 million, hence the need to beam searchlight into the whereabouts of the fund.
“Yes, for me it’s still missing. The money in question is $289 million, and all what the former DG is trying to say is that the $43 million and the $44 million are part of the $289 million. If you subtract $43 million and $44 million, where’s the balance? That’s why we’re where we are today, and that’s also why we have to intensify the investigation.
“Like I told you, it’s an issue under investigation. The most important thing is that there was $289 million approved for the agency. Then $43 million was discovered in Ikoyi, and another $44 million was discovered in their vault. If they procured or whatever they did, from there we can say they procured this and did this for so and so projects.
“Definitely there should be headway. I said we’re doing investigation. Since the people that worked during that period are still around, we’ll continue to invite them one after the other,” Jaji assured.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
