•Reps refer matter to ethics committee
THE Senate yesterday summoned Defence Minister Mansur Dan-Ali, Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele.
It followed alleged withdrawal of $462 million for purchase of helicopters from an American firm.
The House of Representatives also referred the matter to its Ethics and Privileges and Finance committees to look into alleged constitutional breach.
The upper chamber said Dan-Ali, Adeosun and Emefiele should appear before its Appropriation Committee to explain the withdrawal and payment of the money to the American firm.
The resolution followed a Point of Order by Senator Samuel Anyanwu (Imo East), who told the Senate the Federal Government withdrew the money in March, 2018.
The Appropriation Committee was given one-week to report back to the Senate in plenary for consideration.
Anyanwu, who came under Order 43 and Section 80 (20(3) of the Constitution, which prescribed the way and manner money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation can be withdrawn, prayed the Senate to look into the matter.
He said the withdrawal and payment were done without National Assembly’s authorisation as required by the Constitution.
Anyanwu said: “I have it on good authority that in March, 2018, from the Federation Account, a whooping sum of $462 million was withdrawn by the Federal Government. The money was paid to an American firm for the purchase of helicopters called Helicopters Techno Fight.
“This was done without approval from this Senate and from the National Assembly. I know that there was no time any request was brought here for the approval of such an amount by the Federal Government from the Federation Account.
“As a sitting senator of this country, I want to find out how this thing was done. I will request that we invite the CBN governor, the Ministers of Defence and Finance. They need to tell us how these monies were withdrawn and paid to this American firm without the approval of the Senate.”
Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who presided, agreed with Anyanwu that the allegation should be investigated to put the record straight.
Ekweremadu said: “You have heard Senator Anyanwu. I think we should refer this matter to the Senate committee on Appropriation to find out the true position of things regarding that.
“The Appropriation committee should invite the three people to throw more light on this and report within one week. ”
The House said the Presidency has by that action rendered the National Assembly nonfunctional, which was a breach of the constitution and the privileges of the lawmakers.
Tobi Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu), while raising a point of order on breach of members’ privileges, said the payment of $400 million to a United States (U.S.)company for the military equipment’s procurement was a breach of the constitution and an affront on the National Assembly.
“This is a breach of privileges of members because the expenditure of $400 million made from the Federation Account was not ratified by the National Assembly.
“As I learnt, the Federal Government breached our collective privileges by making the parliament completely nonfunctional.
“There’s a mischief intended about this by not informing the parliament and this is exclusive of the $1 billion that was said to have been approved for the procurement of military equipment to tackle insurgency in the Northeast,” he said.
In his ruling, Speaker Yakubu Dogara did not allow debate of the issue but referred it to Ethics and Privileges and Finance Committees to look into it.
Saying that the referral was not a full blown investigation yet, the Speaker noted that removal of monies from the Federation Account without the explicit approval of the parliament amounted to stealing of public funds.
He said the veracity of the allegation must be investigated whether the breaches occurred or not and to what extent.
