Reps summon Okonjo-Iweala, Aganga, Adesina over rice importation

The House of Repre¬sentatives’ Commit¬tee on Customs has summoned the trio of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, co¬ordinating minister for the economy and minister of finance; Olusegun Aganga, minister of trade and invest-ment; and Akinwumi Ades¬ina, minister of agriculture, over Federal Government’s rice importation policy.

Sabo Mohammed Na¬kudu, chairman of the com¬mittee, who disclosed this on Tuesday, said that the three ministers are to appear before a public hearing to be organised by the committee on the matter.

He said the committee’s resolve for the public hear¬ing was sequel to a House resolution on the matter following a motion moved by Nasiru Baballe Ila on February 19.

He said that the hearing would be to ascertain the lev¬el of rice importation policy.

In a related development, the House committee on public accounts has also summoned Okonjo-Iweala; Jonah Otunla, accountant general of the federation;

Samuel Ukura, auditor gen¬eral of the federation, and Bright Okogun, director general of Budget Office, to appear before it over alleged missing N24 billion that was released from the service wide vote (SWV) in 2010 for the police pension fund.

This followed disclosure from Nellie Meshach, di¬rector general of Pension Transitional Arrangement Department (PTAD), on Tuesday that there was no documentary evidence on whereabouts of the money.

The committee also told Okogun to come before it with a memo showing the request for the missing fund, and also demanded that First Bank of Nigeria show how much was deposited in the bank and how much was disbursed, as well as come up with the bank de¬tails of the transactions.

Meshach, who appeared before the committee to explain how the office ex¬pended the money it re¬ceived from SWV account through the Budget Office, said that she just resumed newly to manage the office, adding that the money was received and expended be¬fore her appointment.