The Interior Minister, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has been given a deadline of twenty-four hours by the Senate to come before it and defend the N700 million the ministry received from Service Wide Votes, SWV, for the monitoring of the governorship elections in Ondo and Edo.
According to a Vanguard report, the Ministry’s justification that the N700 million would be reported by the Nigerian Civil Defence Corps led Senator Matthew Urhoghide, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, to issue the directive to Dr. Shuaib Belgore, the ministry’s permanent secretary (NSDC).
The money was released in two installments, the Committee claims, with N400 million going to the Ondo governorship election and N300 million going to the Edo governorship poll.
This information can be found in the Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE), a document created by the Accountant General of the Federation that demonstrates that N400 million was released to the Ministry of Interior for logistics and operational support related to the upcoming Ondo state gubernatorial election.
The second statement stated that N300 million had been given to the Ministry of Interior for operational and logistical support leading up to the upcoming governor of Edo State election.
The NSDC will be responsible for keeping track of the funds, according to the Permanent Secretary; we only submit requests on its behalf.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Urhoghide, expressed dissatisfaction with the Permanent Secretary’s defense, saying that the Ministry, not the NSDC, was responsible for collecting the funds.
Urhoghide added, “NSDC has their own queries, they are appearing before the Panel to react to the one that bears their names, and they have the money handed to them directly. The NSDC will only go before the Committee to account for the money sought individually from Service Wide Votes.
According to our records, your ministry, not NSDC, will defend the expenses.
The Chairman stated, “You have 24 hours to make your report available to us; we must have an answer from you,” and then gave the Ministry 24 hours to defend the N700 million for the Edo and Ondo governorship elections.
