Former President Buhari’s Loan Request Declined By Reps

The immediate-past president Muhammadu Buhari asked for a loan from the Federal Government to pay some judgment debts totaling over N543,594,989,247, but the House of Representatives did not approve it before it adjournment on Wednesday.

The report on the presidential request was delivered by Ahmed Dayyabu, the chairman of the House Committee on Aids, Loans, and Debt Management, on Wednesday. However, the MPs decided that work on the report had not yet been completed and postponed consideration of it until the 10th House.

At the end of his presidency, Buhari had written to the National Assembly to request their consent to pay the government’s judgment debts (to the tune of $566,754,584.31, £98,526,012.00 and N226,281,801,881.64.)
The government would make the payment by issuing promissory notes, according to the President in a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, and President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan.

In the meantime, the Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate the Alleged Loss of Over $2.4 Billion in Revenue from the Illegal Sale of 48 Million Barrels of Crude Oil in 2015, Including Crude Oil Exports from 2014 to Date, considered and adopted its findings. The committee’s chairman, Mark Gbillah, presented the findings earlier on Tuesday,
though the panel still summoned more top officials of the last administration at its last investigative hearing on Monday.

The committee claimed to have determined the claim to be untrue regarding the supposed loss of over $2.4 billion in income from the unlawful sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil export in 2015.

The report reads,

“The committee advises the National Assembly (Senate and the House), anti-graft and other agencies of the government not to waste taxpayer’s funds on further future investigation of these allegations, as they appear to be completely fraudulent and unsubstantiated.

“The security and anti-graft agencies should be advised to prosecute any of the individuals who initially made these allegations, if any one of them continues to peddle these false allegations after the committee’s investigation.

“The Abuja High Court handling the case against the related individuals is advised to resume the hearing and prosecution of the case, so justice can be meted out appropriately if any of the individuals are found culpable.

“Mr Jackson Ude and Point Blank News should be advised to issue a public retraction of their publication of these allegations on their website and other media outlets, considering the damage this publication has done to the reputation of related government officials and should strongly be admonished to be more circumspect in their future publications.”

On all the crude oil exports and sales by Nigeria from 2014 till date, the committee said, “All the oil and gas companies the committee requested information from did not provide most of the information requested for while some of them refused to respond or appear before the committee.”