Just when we thought the fraudulent spending using the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse to loot is over, from Agric Ministry, another scam alert hits Nigerians on how the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development expended N18.9 billion during the lockdown period.
Reasons the Agric Ministry spent such an abundant amount of money on a project that doesn’t sound realistic is what attracted the attention of the House of Representatives to launch an investigation into the matter.
How the money disappeared into thin air sparked conversations in one of the probe sessions with the Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, Wole Oke, present to oversee the proceedings.
What was gathered from the Ministry’s spending records include exhausting over eighteen billion on grass cutting, rejuvenation of arable lands, installation of research labs in the heat of the Covid-19 lockdown, ground preparation etc?
According to the Chairman’s statement on the expenditure provided by the Agric Ministry, N18.9 billion was sunk into “Bush clearing, Preparing the Ground, and Restoring Soil Plant Laboratories during the 2020 Lockdown.”
Overall, since the Ministry claimed the grass clearing project, among others, was contracted out to various companies, Oke said the House Committee on Public Accounts would grant all involved parties a fair hearing on how they utilised the funds.