The Senate Ad-hoc Committee investigating the N30 trillion Ways and Means facility granted to the federal government between 2015 and 2023 has accused the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of frustrating its efforts to uncover how the loans were utilised.
The committee chairman, Isah Jibrin, made the allegation on Tuesday after receiving an interim report.
Mr Jibrin, the senator for Kogi East, said the CBN has refused to provide the necessary documents to facilitate the investigation, thereby delaying the completion of the assignment.
Recall that under the immediate past president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria borrowed N30 trillion in ways and means from CBN under Godwin Emefiele.
Financial experts had blamed the country’s inflation woes on the excessive Ways and Means borrowing by the past government, which had sparked outrage among Nigerians.
In response to the concerns created by the Ways and Means, the Senate set up a nine-member ad hoc committee on 27 February 2024 to probe the loan disbursement and utilisation.
Nearly a year later, Jibrin accused CBN of delaying the committee’s investigation over its refusal to provide necessary information on the matter.
“None of the documents was submitted to us. We will not allow you to attend the next meeting because you have been coming here for the same reason.
“The least person that will attend the next meeting should be a deputy governor of CBN.
“What you are telling us is not the truth. We have not received the documents. I don’t want to deceive the public here,” he added.
According to him, “The information we have here is not different from what we have had all along. What we did was hand over the documents to the consultants, and when the consultants made available to us this interim report, our intention was to hold onto the interim report.
“We have now been compelled to make available this interim report to the general public so that they know where the problem is.”
“The problem is that the Central Bank of Nigeria has consistently denied us the documents that we need to complete this assignment. That is the truth,” he said.
