By Matthew Tabe
The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has given the Ministry of Interior 24 hours to account for N700 million Service Wide Vote (SWV) collected in 2020 for security during Edo and Ondo states gubernatorial elections.
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Available records before the committee, show that the ministry collected the money in two batches from the office of Accountant General of the Federation with N400 million for Ondo governorship election and N300 million for Edo governorship election.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Mathew Urhoghide (PDP Edo South), gave the directive to the Permanent Secretary of Interior Ministry, Dr S. Belgore due to excuse by the ministry that the N700 million will be accounted for by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
According to the Permanent Secretary, “it is the NSDC that will account for the money, we only made request on behalf of the NSCDC.
Not satisfied with the defence of Permanent Secretary, the Chairman of the Committee said the excuse was not teneable “because the NSCDC did not collect the money, it was the Ministry that collected the money.”
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NSCDC has their own queries, they are coming before the panel to respond to the one that bears their names, they have the money given to them directly.
“From our records, it is your ministry that will defend the expenditures not NSCDC”, he said.
“You have 24 hours to make your report available to us, we must get explanation from you,” he said.
He added that the NSCDC will only come before the Committee to account for the money requested personally from SWC.