The House of Representatives Committee on National Population Commission NPC has rejected the Commission’s budget over their inability to defend how N 1.9 billion was expended on the summit.
The committee’s decision followed a motion by a member of the committee during the 2023 budget defence session of the commission.
The drama stated when the Chairman of the commission told the committee that the sum of 1.9 billion naira was spent on summit in the presidential villa and conferences organised across the 36 states of the federation in preparation of the 2023 population census exercise.
Adding his voice to the matter, a Director in the commission, Mrs Arinola Olanipekun said the summit was organized to bring to Nigerians the 2023 census instrument as to questions and nature of data the commission wants to generate from the opinion of millions of Nigerian citizens.
In his reaction to the matter, member of the committee from Anambra State, Mr Ifeanyi Momah expressed concern on how 5 billion naira budgeted for mock census was spent while most of the staff deployed to his state for the exercise had to reach out to politicians for financial support.
looking at the high discrepancies in the document presented to the committee by the NPC, a member from Ondo state Mr Gboluga Ikengboju, moved a motion for the urging the commission to go back and take a critical analysis and represent the budget for necessary action
Rulling on the motion, the committee chairman Muhammad Lawal, expressed dissatisfaction with the presentation and directed the leadership of the NPC to come back on Wednesday next week with proper documentation.
COV/TSIBIRI