The Senate, on Tuesday, resolved to probe the N30tn Ways and Means spent by former President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government which according to it, was recklessly spent.
It further stated that reckless spending of the overdraft collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria under Godwin Emefiele largely accounted for food and security crises currently facing the country.
The Red Chamber then resolved to set up an ad-hoc committee, to carry out an investigation on what the N30tn Ways and Means were spent on by the immediate past government since details of such spending were not made available to the National Assembly.
The ad-hoc committee which will be constituted on Wednesday, will also probe the N10tn expended on the Anchor Borrowers Scheme, the $2.4bn forex transaction out of $7bn obligation made for that purpose as well as other intervention programmes.
Senate’s resolutions on planned investigations followed consideration of report of its joint Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, Finance, National Planning, Agriculture and Appropriation on State of the Economy after interactive sessions with the Federal Government’s economic management team .
The report consideration in plenary on Tuesday, was stormy with accusations and counter accusations by senators on why and how the N22.7tn Ways and Means was passed by the 9th Senate in May 2023 and additional N7.2tn passed on December 30, 2023 by the 10th Senate.
Specifically , the Whip of the Senate , Senator Ali Ndume (APC Borno South), in his contribution , blamed the Senate for approving the request without details from Buhari.
Ndume said, “When the N22.7trillion Ways and Means approval request was brought before the 9th Senate, I insisted that details of spendings made with it , should be provided before approval but the Senate then went ahead and approve it .”
