Senate Committee Summons Finance Minister Over Military Funding

The Senate committee on Army has summoned the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, to give an account of the releases to the military for Operation Lafiya Dole and the battle against terrorism.
This is coming after the Minister was absent at a meeting called earlier by the committee, although she was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Aliyu Shinkafi. Dissatisfied, the Committee insisted the minister must appear.
During her appearance, the Permanent Secretary told the committee that N75 billion was appropriated and released in 2019 while additional funds appropriated from the service wide votes was also released 100 percent, and another sum of 2.5 billion.
Noting that N75 billion was appropriated but N74.99 billion was released in 2020, Aliyi said N100 billion has been appropriated and N19.4 billion released for the first quarter of 2021. He further added that the ministry released N19.95 billion for the second quarter to the Army just yesterday (Wednesday).
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Shinkafi’s explanation was not satisfactory as Senator Ali Ndume, the Committee Chairman, presented a letter from the Chief of Defence staff where he stated that military authorities complained of a shortfall in releases from the Finance ministry.TRENDING VIDEO OF THE DAY: I Will Soon Start Acting – Bukunmi Adeaga-Ilori Reveals
Photos Credit: Getty