From Fred Itua and Kenneth Udeh, Abuja
Senators on Wednesday, had a mild rancour, following a statement made by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio wherein he labeled the Senate committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions as failing in carrying out its oversight functions.
Akpabio made the comment while speaking on a motion brought to the Senate by the chairman, Senate Committee on Capital Market, Osita Izunaso.
The motion which was later stepped down was aimed at investigating and unmasking those involved in $2.4 billion false claims out of the $7 billion foreign exchange backlog.
While making his contribution, Akpabio turned down the motion titled; “investigate the foreign exchange backlog accumulation, the recent activities in the foreign exchange market as well as some of the Development Finance Programmes of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 2015”.
Describing the committee of failing in carrying out its oversight duties, Akpabio said the motion ought to have been presented to the Senate in form of a report after the committee must have met with the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to ascertain the veracity of the claims.
Prior to the final resolution of the Senate on he matter, Akpabio described the details of the motion as mere speculations.
Akpabio also described the CBN’s calculations that $2.4 billion out of the $7 billion foreign exchange backlog owed banks and other entities as incorrect.
He said: “My view is that if we want to go ahead with this motion, then we have to go with an ad-hoc committee because the committee on Banking and finance has failed to do its oversight functions. You don’t need a motion to undertake your oversight functions.
“The content of the motion is very robust but some contentious issues are not in the purview and knowledge of the Senate, especially some of the issues raised in the interview on Arise Television.
“The figures are not correct where it said that ‘Mindful that in a recent widely publicised interview on Arise TV, the Governor of the CBN, Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, had stated that $2.4 billion out of the $7 billion foreign exchange backlog owed to banks, aviation, and other entities was not valid and that the CBN had only cleared $2.4 billion out of the valid $4.6 billion FX backlog, leaving about $2.2 billion outstanding’.
“If you are saying that $2.4 billion out of the $7 billion foreign exchange backlog owed banks and other entities here, you are owed 2.4 billion especially the Anchor Borrower Programme which the CBN plans to discontinue is not what they said. We resolved that we are going to invite the CBN Governor to have a close session with us arising from the security discussions these are things that we can put before him .
“What the Senate committee Chairman on Banking, Finance and other Financial Institutions explained in essence is that you ought to have brought a report to this Senate on your findings after you heard the Television interview. You invited the CBN Governor to your committee sittings and when you were not satisfied you brought a report during a closed session.
“When a motion comes here it means that your oversight function has been exhausted and it is not left to the Senate to take a decision on how to approach it.
“You don’t need us to empower you to do your work. The reason we have oversight and committees , all the items listed here should be handled by the committee. Now the committee is going by motion to empower them to handle what we have already empowered them to handle.”
Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Jibrin Barau, in his submission, said: “I quite agree with Mr. President. Let’s not be speculative. Let’s not put the cart before the horse, let’s invite him to explain, then we can take action.”
Senate committee Chairman on Banking , Finance Insurance and other Financial Institutions Tokunbo Abiru, fired back.
“On Arise Television the CBN Governor said it himself that out of the 2.4 billion was found to be invalid out of the $7 billion foreign exchange backlog owed to banks, aviation, and other entities. What the motion is trying to do is to bring transparency into our business transactions as a Nation.
“It is for us to know those who are the perpetrators of this Act. Last week the joint committee met with the CBN Governor and he also repeated the same issue, so there’s nothing speculative about it. So it is important that we investigate all of this,” he said.
Akpabio, after the rancour, said: “We have all consulted amongst ourselves and I have been properly briefed by the Senate Chairman on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions and we have agreed that there’s a need for brevity and we would like to have cogent points on the knowledge of the Nigerian problem.
“For instance the assertions by the CBN Governor on the 7 million dollars, Nigerians will like to know and the Senate is very interested. We also discussed the issues of the Anchor Borrowers Programme, we agree that the programme was nor well managed and a lot of people are complaining and the Nigerian public would also like to know about the Anchor Borrowers Programme.
“There is also the issue of NAFEM , having looked at this Beautiful motion, the Senators have agreed that it should be withdrawn now.”