House of Representatives, says it will probe the financial operations of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
The resolution followed a motion under matters of urgent public importance by Rep. Benjamin Wayo (Benue-APC) on “the alleged violation of public trust at the agency.”
Wayo, who moved the motion, said that NEMA has been unable to account for the more than N17 billion it had received so far. According to him, the core mandate of NEMA is to coordinate the management of disaster across the country and to assist victims of such disasters. “In spite of this core mandate, several cases of disasters across the country have been given necessary attention which is the hunger issue in IDP camps in the Northeast, the farmers and herdsmen conflicts, fire disaster victims and many other such cases that have been neglected. He said the house was “Concerned that the agency has received more than N10 billion from 20 per cent from the National Ecological Fund in the last one year, five billion naira for hunger intervention in the Northeast, about two billion naira for flood intervention across the country.” Wayo expressed concern that these funds were illegally siphoned by officials of the agency through dubious award of contracts without delivering relief items to the victims. According to him, the Director General of the agency also awards contracts to companies he has personal interest in and has violated his approval limits by awarding contracts to single firm without due process. He further expressed concerns that the agency is the only federal agency that has an Air Ambulance but has turned it into financial venture without remitting the financial proceeds to government coffers and the agency could not account for their assets. Contributing to the motion, Rep. Obinna Chidoka (Anambra-PDP), said that the house should investigate NEMA’s activities thoroughly to know how much was appropriated and spent. Similarly, Rep. Sunday Adepoju, (Oyo-APC), said that tax payers money must be accounted for as there were no way these monies could be spent unaccounted for. The motion was unanimously adopted by members when it was put to a voice vote by the Speaker, Mr Yakubu Dogara. Consequently, the House mandated its Committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness to investigate the allegations in six weeks.
Source: NAN
