Senate gives panel probing ways and means loan two months to submit report

The senate has given the ad hoc committee probing the ‘N30 trillion ways and means’ loan under former President Muhammadu Buhari two months to submit its report.

The upper legislative chamber approved the two-month deadline extension after Isah Jibrin, chair of the committee, requested it on the floor of the senate on Thursday.

On March 11, 2024, Senate President Godswill Akpabio inaugurated the 17-member ad hoc committee to probe the “N30 trillion ways and means” secured under Buhari and report in “six weeks”.

The deadline has since passed and the panel is yet to submit its report.

Jibrin, the senator representing Kogi east, had said the investigation is still ongoing and being intensified, after TheCable reported that the probe was in limbo.

The senator said N30 trillion was arrived at on the basis of the documents provided to his committee by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

“We felt like we needed to get more details. We were told that all the records are domiciled with the auditor-general’s office – that is tenors and repayment schedules,” he had said.

“In fact, we were told that Ondo and FCT benefited from the ways and means and that there is a repayment schedule. We have written to them (auditor-general), but they have not written back.”

The ways and means is a loan facility through which the CBN finances the federal government’s budget deficit.

The CBN law limits advances under ways and means to five percent of the previous year’s revenue, but this has been observed mostly in the breach over the years.