This followed a Point of Order on Matter of Urgent Importance raised by Sen. Olubunmi Adetunmbi (APC-Ekiti) who relied on the Senate Order 42.
Adetunmbi drew the Senate's attention to newspaper reports alleging that the money was proceed from the sale of crude by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
He said the laws stipulated that proceeds from the sale of crude should be lodged in the CBN and requested that the senate should institute a probe into the alleged missing funds.
According to him, the apex bank has written that the funds are accruals that are not remitted from January 2012 to July 2013 by the NNPC.
"There has been a raging debate on the issue of missing money from the coffers of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
"Today, all newspapers carried the report on 49.8 billion dollars that has not been remitted to the federation account. As a parliament, this is a very grave issue,’’Adetunbi said.
He said the parliament owed it a duty to the public to ensure that ``we get to the bottom of this issue''.
"This will be for purposes of public information and for purposes of integrity of this parliament because appropriation and revenue are the major responsibilities of this parliament,” he said.
The Senate President, Sen. David Mark, said since the details of the matter were not before the senate, it would be difficult for senators to consider it instantly as a matter of urgent importance.
He said the matter would be referred to the finance committee for further investigations to enable it to avail the senate details of the matter, rather than relying on newspaper reports.
“What you showed to me was the newspaper report and I also said since you didn’t have all the details, I will refer it to the committee.
``The committee will get all the details and bring its report here.
“You know that was my discussion with you. So, this new dimension of a letter coming from CBN was not discussed with me,’’ he said.
``Whatever it is, because we don’t have the details at this point, we cannot go into any further detailed discussion on the matter.''
Mark referred the matter to the committee and directed it to report back to the plenary in less than seven days as the matter required urgent attention.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) senators on Wednesday urged the senate leadership to get to the root of the matter.
The Senate Minority Leader, Sen. George Akume, made their positions known at a news conference in Abuja.
Akume, who led the APC senators to the conference, said the CBN source on the alleged missing funds was authentic and should not be doubted.
He said the APC senators were determined to ensure that the matter was given the urgent attention it deserved.
"We have been told and we have every cause to believe that this money is missing.
``This document is coming from the CBN. It is an authentic source. This matter cannot be swept under the carpet.
``We are determined to follow it to the fullest and we want you to join us in doing so.
"One of our responsibilities is to identify with the people by ensuring that those of us who are charged with higher responsibility conform to very high standard expected of people in public office.’’
Akume, while restating confidence in the leadership of the senate, added that their action was borne out of love for the country and promotion of good governance.
He urged President Goodluck Jonathan to act appropriately, if he was serious on his transformation agenda.
“This government, as the president has told us repeatedly, is anchored on transformation and we believe it is time for him to react quick and realistically to this letter from the CBN.
“We love this country like any other group of people and what we are doing is a national assignment with malice towards none but love for all the good people of this country," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment