Reps Query Accountant General Over N19b “Illegal” Withdrawals From Recovered Loot Accounts

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…I don’t know the current status of £4.2m Ibori loot,
Finance Minister declares

House of Representatives yesterday queried the Accountant
General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris for making an illegal
withdrawal from recovered loots accounts.

This was the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed said she was
not in the know of the current status of the repatriated £4.2
million loot linked to a former governor of Delta State from the
United Kingdom.

The two public officers had appeared at the resumed hearing of
the Adhoc Committee on Assessment and Status of All Recovered Loots
Movable and Immovable Assets from 2002 to 2020 by Agencies of the
Federal Government of Nigeria for Effective Efficient Management
and Utilisation chaired by Hon. Adejoro Adeogun.

The Committee had raised questions on the N19 billion withdrawn
from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recovery
account.

Idris, who listed several recovery accounts including that of
the EFCC, tried to justify the withdrawals from the separate
recovery accounts.

According to him, the accounts were all linked by the Treasury
Single Account.

He said that technically, it was an extension of the
Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), submitting that approvals were
obtained for the withdrawals.

But his submission angered the Committee members who said that
there were no appropriations for such withdrawals.

According to the Committee, there must be a recourse to the law
through the national assembly, of which any failure would mean a
violation of the law.

The Committee stated there was no trace of any withdrawals from
the recovery accounts in any Appropriation Act passed by the
national parliament

Insisting that withdrawals must be from the CRF with the backing
of the law, the lawmakers asked that the AGF should be held
responsible for any infractions.

“Of what essence is appropriation if you can just dip your hands
and take money from government accounts?” a member of the
committee, Wole Oke, questioned.

Incidentally, the lawmakers got the support of the Finance
Minister, Ahmed who agreed that it was unconstitutional to tamper
with unappropriated funds.

She said though there was fiscal provision in the budget for
recovered loot, such money would have to be moved to the CRF first
before it can be touched.

Similarly, the Minister who entertained questions on the status
of the £4.2 million Ibori, said she was yet to be briefed.

“On the £4.2 million I am still waiting to get information about
this recovery. I have read in the media that the recovery has been
made. But what has happened in the past is that the Attorney
General would write to Mr President and report that recovery and
then give advice on what needs to be done or give advice based on
the negotiations that they made during the process of the
recovery.

“And then that instruction is now conveyed to us. But up till
now, I have not received any formal conveyance, any formal
information written in respect of this £4.2 million. So I cannot
say whether it is a Federal Government fund or a state fund. It
depends on the advice that would come,” she said.

In its ruling, the Committee directed the AGF and Finance
Minister to furnish it with a summary of all transactions made from
the recovered loot accounts since 2002.

It also invited the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria,
Godwin Emefiele, to appear before it on June 3, 2021 for proper
reconciliation of all recovery accounts.