The Senate has said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) consistently frustrates its investigation into the ₦30 trillion Ways and Means Advance and the Anchor Borrowers’ programme under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Naijaonpoint reports that the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Ways and Means Advance disclosed this after receiving an interim report from its consultants.
The committee, inaugurated a year ago by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, stated that CBN refused to cooperate in the investigation by releasing some documents.
The Chairman of the committee, Senator Isah Jibrin, added that the Committee reached out to CBN, but the apex bank consistently denied releasing the essential documents needed for the investigation.
“The information we have here is not different from what we have heard all along. What we did was to hand over the documents to the consultants, and when the consultants made available to us this interim report, our intention was to hold onto the interim report on the final report.
“But we’ve been compelled to make available this interim report to the general public so that they know that we let them know where the problem is, and the problem is that the Central Bank of Nigeria has denied us consistently the documents that we need to complete this assignment. That is the truth.
“It was at the CBN sometimes, I met Bala the deputy governor. And they promised, but nothing came out of it. The Clerk has been there several times. Nothing has come out of it. The consultants themselves even took it upon themselves to go with CBN directly, because we introduced them to CBN and nothing has come out of it,” he said.
However, the Director of Banking Services at the CBN, Hamisu Abdullahi, told Channels TV that the apex bank provided all the requested documents.
The committee issued a strong warning to the CBN representatives, emphasizing the need for full disclosure of how the funds were utilized to address Nigeria’s economic challenges.