$2.1 Arms Deal Probe, Indictment Of Senate – Saraki

SAN FRANCISCO, December 15, (THEWILL) – Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has said the ongoing investigation into the $2.1 billion arms deal in the Office of the National Security Adviser has called to question whether the Senate is effective in the performance of its oversight functions.

Saraki in his remark during the plenary session in the legislative chamber on a motion on Tuesday, titled: “Abandonment of Projects: A Menace to Development in Nigeria” sponsored by Suleiman Nazif, said if the Senate committees on national security and intelligence as well as the one on defence had performed their constitutional roles in monitoring and investigating how funds allocated to that sensitive area had been utilised, the nation would not be witnessing the mind-boggling stories that are emerging.

The Senate president lamented that the increasing rate of abandoned projects in the country was an indictment on the National Assembly for poor oversight.

He also said a system would be put in place to monitor the activities of the committees.

The Senate urged the Federal Government to set up a project performance and monitoring taskforce to severely punish contractors who collect mobilisation funds and abandon projects to serve as deterrent.

Nazif noted that there were 11, 886 abandoned projects that would cost an estimated N7.78 trillion to complete.

He also noted that public infrastructures accounted for most of the abandoned projects and those awarded based on considerations were given to friends even when they did not possess any technical knowledge of the projects.