House summons CBN governor over recovered loot

The House of Representatives has summoned the Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele, to provide details of recovered loot.

The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, recently told President Muhammadu Buhari to explain to Nigerians what he did with recovered loot, urging anti-corruption agencies to be transparent.

The parliament’s ad hoc committee investigating the assessment and status of recovered loot on Thursday issued the summons.

Adeogun Adejoro, the committee chairman, who issued the summons in Abuja, said the committee needed to know the number of recovered loot and where they are kept, just as finance minister Zainab Ahmed told lawmakers did not know the number of accounts used to keep the recovered loot.

She, however, said the ministry had a record of recovered and the amount that had come into the account.

She stated that N50 billion was provided from recovered loot to fund the 2020 budget, adding that there were two types of recovery accounts – interim forfeiture and final forfeiture accounts.

She revealed that the investigation had not been concluded in the case of interim forfeiture, adding that the federal government could not touch such money, and until investigations are concluded, the government could not spend the money.

She explained that the government borrowed from recovered loot to fund its operations, adding that the unusual circumstances the country found itself had made it difficult to pay back the loan.

Ms Ahmed, however, said the government was hoping to pay back in the 2022 budget.

Ahmed Idris, the Accountant General for the Federation, said the government linked all accounts of all agencies responsible for recovered loots to the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

He stated that no government agencies could claim to own the recovered loot because it belonged to the federation account because they recovered them.

He further said the government used some of the recovered loot for budget implementation. (NAN)