The Senate has resolved to summon the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, the Ministers of Finance and Defence, Kemi Adeosun and Mansur Dan-Ali respectively, over the withdrawal of $462 million from federation account without the approval of the Senate.
The withdrawal was said to have been made in March 2018 to pay for helicopters to an American firm called Helicopter Tecno Fights Helicopters.
The matter was drawn to the red chamber in a point of order raised by Sen. Sam Anyanwu (PDP, Imo) on Tuesday.
According to him, the act negates the provisions of Section 80 (2,3), 1999 the 1999 constitution.
The provision states: “No money shall be withdrawn from the consolidated revenue fund of the federation except to meet expenditure that is charged upon the fund by the constitution or when the issue of those monies has been authorized by an appropriation act, supplementary appropriation act or an act passed in the pursuance of section 81 of this constitution.
“No money shall be withdrawn from any public fund of the federation other that the consolidated revenue fund of the federation unless the issues of those monies have been authorized by the act of the National Assembly. No monies shall be withdrawn from the consolidated revenue fund or any other public fund of the federation except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly.”
Speaking further, Anyanwu said: “As a senator, I want to find out how this thing was done and I suggest that we invite the CBN governor, the Ministers of Finance and Defence to tell us how this money was withdrawn and paid to an American company without the approval of the Senate.”
The red chamber adopted the resolution and refereed the matter to the appropriation and committee to report back in one week.
