Senate has given the Ministry of Finance, Office of Accountant General of the Federation and Office of National Security Adviser ultimatum of
next week to appear before it and give explanations on alleged “secret withdrawal of N7.5 billion from the 2 percent National Automotive Council Design and Development Council (NADDC) Levy Account domiciled with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The Senator Matthew Urhoghide, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Edo South led Senate Committee on Public Accounts which is summoning, had two weeks ago summoned the affected agencies to appear before the lawmakers , but they agencies failed to present at the scheduled meeting on Wednesday , 28th April, 2021.
Presenting the details of the withdrawal before the Committee yesterday, the Director General of NADDC, Jelani Tukur said that the Agency has already written to Minister of Finance, Ahmed Zainab and Accountant General of the Federation on the withdrawal of N3.7 billion as loan to NAFCON, withdrawal of N3.8 billion for security personnel car laon scheme and another withdrawal of N2.3 billion as loan to Steyrs Nigeria Limited. According to him, the agency had also written a letter to remind Niger Insurance Plc on the agreement reached on July 9th 2020 as ordered by the Committee. The first letters were written to Minister of Finance and Accountant General of the Federation on 23 April, 2021 and were delivered to the Minister and Accountant General of the Federation on on 26 April, 2021. The second was written to the Minister on 26th of April and was delivered to the Minister on 27th April while that of Accountant General of the Federation were delivered on 26th of April.
Senator Urhoghide who noted that all parties involved in the withdrawal of money must present by next week Tuesday and give the Committee assurance that the money will be returned back to the account of NADDC’s Account which domiciled in Central Bank, said that they should bring evidence of the approval when they are coming on Tuesday. According to the Committee, the money must be returned otherwise and failure to do so, it will take a drastic action on the issue at stake. The query had said, “A total sum of N3,836,000,000.00 (Three billion, eight hundred and thirty-six million naira) was irregularly withdrawn from the 2% National Automotive Council Levy Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria, Abuja in 2 installments of N2,800,000,000 (in 2005) and N1,036,000,000.00 (in 2006) by the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Finance as car loan to be granted for the Security Personnel Car Purchase Scheme Loan.
“The transaction was carried out by the Presidency in collaboration with the Bank of Industry, the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Accountant-General of the Federation without the involvement of NAC, the account owner. However the principal and the accrued interest from the fictitious loan have not been paid back nor are records available on the beneficiaries, agreement documents, moratorium, duration of the loan, the yearly interest rates accruable and how the fund will be paid back by the beneficiary. The Director General has been requested to intensify correspondence with the Honourable Minister of Finance, Accountant-General of the Federation and the Presidency to recover the fund (‘loan’).”
