Senate Committee summons Finance Minister on military funding

The Senate Committee on the Army on Thursday summoned Finance Minister Mrs. Zainab Ahmed to account for military releases for Operation Lafiya Dole and the war on terror.

The summons was made after the Minister failed to show up for a meeting called by the committee.

The Minister was represented by Aliyu Shinkafi, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, but the committee was disappointed and demanded that the minister appear before them.

The Permanent Secretary, on the other hand, informed the committee that N75 billion had been allocated and released in 2019, and that additional funds appropriated from service-wide votes had also been released in full. A total of 2.5 billion dollars was also announced.

He went on to say that N75 billion had been set aside for 2020, but N74.99 billion had been announced.

N100 billion has been set aside for 2021, with N19.4 billion released in the first quarter.

He said that the ministry had just released N19.95 billion for the second quarter.

Committee Chairman Senator Ali Ndume had introduced a letter from the Chief of Defence Staff where he claimed that military authorities had complained about a deficit in releases from the Finance Ministry.