BEVERLY HILLS, October 04, (THEWILL) – The Senate on Tuesday constituted an ad-hoc committee to investigate alleged diversion of funds and materials donated to the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the northeast with an agreement to donate N300,000 each to the IDPs.
The 10-man committee headed by Senator Shehu Sani was also mandated to find out how the funds were utilized from the time of release to date following a motion by Senator Baba Kaka Garbai from Borno central.
The upper chamber also expressed disappointment at the government poor handling of the humanitarian crisis in the area, especially in internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps warning that unless immediate action was taken to salvage the worsening situation in the North East thousands of people in IDPs camps would die.
Garbai had recalled that on November 17, 2015, the senate raised the amount proposed by the executive in the budget for IDPs from N6bn to 10bn, in recognition of the magnitude of the crisis but insisted that there had been no tangible result on the ground despite the release of half of the money appropriated.
“Rather than use the money appropriated for the IDPs and the northeast to ameliorate the problems, the focus of the disbursement so far made has been used to feather other interest,” he said.
He therefore called on the senate to constitute an adhoc committee to ascertain how much had been released to the presidential initiative on the northeast and how these funds had been utilised from inception to date and the alleged the diversion of grains and other food items meant for IDPs from strategic grain reserves.
After debating the motion, the senators agreed to also donate money to the IDPs.
Story by David Oputah
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