The Senate Ad-hoc Committee probing how the N30tn Ways and Means loans were obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria, and spent by the former President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, says it has uncovered some infractions in the process of obtaining the overdraft.
As a result, the Committee has decided to summon the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, to clarify some details on the breach, according to The Punch.
This was disclosed when the Chairman of the Senate committee, Senator Isah Jibrin (Kogi East), and other members of the panel met with officials of the CBN at the National Assembly on Tuesday.
The ad hoc Committee is investigating disbursements and use of loans from the N30tn Ways and Means Fund which was granted during the Buhari administration.
Jibrin alleged that the immediate former governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, single-handedly signed billions of naira in the approval of different tranches of the loans without following due process.
According to Jubrin, Emefiele should have approved the loans in conjunction with the CBN Board of Directors, noting that he unilaterally signed the loans contrary to the requirements of the CBN Act.
Jibrin said, “The committee of governors ought to be the signatories to the Ways and Means account but in the document we have here, the governor signed billions of naira in about 13 places.
We want to know the total figure of the Ways and Means. We want to know the summation of the figure.”
Furthermore, the committee chairman noted that documents available to him on the Anchors Borrowers Programme implemented by the Buhari administration show that about 70 per cent of the programme had been executed, leaving the remaining 30 per cent.
He said, “On the Anchor Borrowers Programme, you have done well. You did about 70 per cent but we must ensure the completion of the remaining 30 per cent.”
However, Jibrin said that the Committee would seek an explanation from the current Central Bank Governor, Cardoso, on what he knows about the Ways and Means Instrument.
