30/09/23
PRESS RELEASE
SHINA JO
Members Of Nigeria’s House of Representatives Adhoc Committee investigating Ecological Funds released for the Great Green Wall Project have uncovered how the National Agency for the Great Green Wall allegedly spent 81.2 Billion Naira on the planting of 21 million Trees across 11 states in the Northeast and Northwest.
The Managing Director of the Agency, Yusuf Bukar, who appeared before the committee on Wednesday explained that the 21 Million Trees which were planted in Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states were vandalised while others have been swept away by natural disasters.
The presentation by the agency’s Managing Director was further compounded by the conflicting financial reports submitted by the Central Bank of Nigeria and Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
The lawmakers after scrutinising the documents presented, wondered how the sum of 697 Million Naira and an additional 500 Million as well as 480 Million Naira were spent on renovation of office accommodation while about 11 Billion Naira was spent on capital projects including those captured under Constituency Projects carried out by federal lawmakers
The committee also queried why the agency refused to carry out any financial audit since inception with humongous amount spent on capacity building and other subheads that are alien to its mandates as provided in the Act establishing it.
The lawmakers also discovered that several Billions of Naira have been kept in the Agency’s account for several years without returning such unutilized Funds to government coffers in line with extant financial regulations.
After taking presentations from representatives of the CBN Governor and the Accountant General of the Federation, the committee resolved to embark on an on-the-spot assessment Tour of all projects executed under the scheme to ascertain the claims by the agency.
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