Trouble Looms For Aregbesola As Senate Gives 24hrs Ultimatum To Account For How He Spent N700m Electoral Funds

The Senate has given the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola twenty-four hours ultimatum to give an account of the N700 million the ministry collected from Service Wide Votes, (SWV) for the monitoring of Ondo and Edo Governorship elections.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Matthew Urhoghide gave the order to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr Shuaib Belgore after an excuse by the ministry that the N700 million would be accounted for by the Nigerian Civil Defence Corps (NSDC).

In a document produced by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation the Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE), the Committee explained that the money was released in two batches, N400 million for Ondo Governorship election and N300 million for Edo Governorship Election.

The document indicated that N400 million was released to the Ministry of Interior for logistics and operational support in respect of the Ondo state gubernatorial election.

The second release read that N300 million was released to the Ministry of Interior for logistics and operational support in respect of the Edo state gubernatorial election.

However, the Permanent Secretary said,  “it is the NSDC that will account for the money, we only make request on behalf of the NSDC.”

The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Urhoghide who found the response unbecoming stated that the excuse was not tenable because the “NSDC did not collect the money, it was the Ministry that collected the money.”

Urhoghide who noted that the NSDC will only come before the Committee to account for the money requested personally from Service Wide Votes, said, ” NSDC 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 NSDC.”

The Chairman subsequently gave the Ministry 24 hours to defend the N700 million for the Edo and Ondo governorship elections.

”You have 24 hours to make your report available to us, we must get explanation from you,” he added.