This came as the lawmakers denied insinuation that N100 billion was approved for zonal intervention projects for members of the National Assembly House Spokesman Abdulrazak Namdas, at his weekly briefing yesterday, said it was only N60 billion that was “graciously approved by President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2016 budget that is yet to be signed into law”. The looted funds investigation, to be carried out by the Public Account Committee (PAC), was prompted by the pronouncement of Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) Abubakar Malami that over N4 trillion($2 trillion) looted from the national treasury have been recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in its 12 years of existence. Sponsor of the motion Segun Adekola (PDP, Ekiti), noted that further recoveries have been made by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Department of State Services (DSS), in addition to the huge amounts of money returned by those whom at various times entered into plea-bargain with the EFCC. “The government has asserted that some officials of the previous government have been returning unspecified sums of money. “We are aware that for many years now, successive governments have continued to take possession of billions of dollars of looted public funds returned from various parts of the world with Switzerland returning a higher percentage of the amounts. “One is, however, concerned about the persistent confusion as to the exact amount that had been recovered, and what happened to it, while successive government have not been transparent regarding their management or spending of recovered public assets, giving vent to the allegations that some of the recovered funds may have been spent, mismanaged or simply disappeared,” he said. In addition to the PAC investigation, Committee on Financial Crimes was mandated to investigate whether any crimes might have been committed in the course of the management and disbursement of the recovered funds in the last 12 years. The motion was unanimously adopted after it was put to a voice vote by the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara. Speaking on the intervention project fund, Namdas said it was true that N100 billion was proposed for the projects by the Executive, but it was pruned down to N60 billion. He said since the budget has not been signed into law, ministries and agencies have not accessed the money to execute the projects.]]>