TheCable

The house of representatives committee on emergency and disaster preparednes, says Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has a case to answer.

Last week, the committee alleged that Osinbajo approved N5.8 billion for National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) illegally.

Osinbajo gave the approval when he was the acting president in June 2017. The money was meant for the north-east intervention fund.

The panel said the release of the fund contravened section 80(4) of the constitution. It also recommended the sack of Mustapha Maihaja, director-general of NEMA, for alleged mismanagement of N33 billion.

But Osinbajo responded saying that the committee’s report is “false and misleading.”

Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, Ali Isa, chairman of the committee, noted that the Osinbajo is the chairman governing council of NEMA and he was acting president when the funds were approved.

“He [Osinbajo] does have questions to answer,” Isa said.

“He may have questions to answer because he is the chairman of the governing council of NEMA and he was acting president that gave the approval.

“There is no place in my report, which was adopted last week by the house, where i mentioned professor Yemi Osinbajo but the fact remains that he was the acting president when the said sum of N5,865,671,939.26 was approved in June 2017 from the consolidated revenue fund account to the NEMA.”