The Senate, has on Tuesday, fired the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, over a project fully funded by the Ministry of Finance, for execution by his Ministry, in the 2020 fiscal year.
The controversial project tagged: ‘ERPG 10145116’, was listed as ‘completion of NTA Gashua sub-station ongoing’.
The project has its allocation of N250 million fully released to the Ministry.
The Senate tackled Lai Mohammed on his 2020 budget expenditures, when he led other top Officials of his Ministry to the Senate, to defend their 2021 budget estimates of his Ministry.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Abdullahi Sankara, maintained that the Minister has a lot of explanations to make over the project.
He said that it was 100 percent release of funds, without any work commensurate to the full releases done on sight.
The controversy over the project started when the Minister explained that the project was sponsored by a Lawmaker as a Constituency project, and inserted same into his Ministry’s 2020 budget.
Senators present at the Panel however, took exceptions to Mohammed’s explanation.
The Lawmakers took turns to tackle Lai Mohommed over the project, insisting that it was not a Constituency project.
More news later…
