No cash was given to the National Emergency Management Agency for the supply of relief food materials to the victims of insurgency in the North-East in 2017, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, has said.

This was contained in a statement issued by Idris after the Wednesday’s House of Representatives’ investigation into the activities of NEMA on Wednesday.

The Central Bank of Nigeria confirmed the disbursement of the fund in accordance with a mandate from the office of the AGF.

In his submission, Idris said the need to release the fund for the supply was as a result of the scaling down of funding by international agencies operating in the region which could jeopardise the lives of the victims.

 Represented by the Director, Funds, OAGF, Mohammed Usman, the AGF said, “N5.8bn was released to five companies and N829m to NEMA for logistics. The objective of the release of the fund was the scaling down of international donor food funding in the region by 85 per cent.

 “However, no money was given to NEMA other than the money for logistics but it was charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.”

 When the Isa Ali led-Committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness Committee insisted on the reasons for the release of the money, he said, “I would have come with the records concerning the reasons for the release of the fund if the committee had included it in what we were asked to provide.”

 He pleaded for time to come up the requested information.

The committee however gave the AGF 72 hours to supply the requested information.

course: http://punchng.com/neast-agf-dangote-clear-air-on-n5-8bn-relief-materials/