Senate grills CCB chairman over abandoned project, probes Ogoni cleanup funding

The Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, yesterday grilled the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) Chairman, Mr. Sam Saba, over its decision to abandon an ongoing office project valued at N8 billion.

The bureau also came under scrutiny over its failure to give detailed and realistic presentation of expenditures undertaken in the course of the 2016 budget year, one which the committee described as “voodoo accounting.”

Members of the committee who took turns to express their displeasure during a budget defence meeting with the bureau yesterday, described as wasteful the agency’s demand for N4.4 billion for the purchase of a new office building despite spending N1.4 billion on the previous project.

The committee also wanted details of how it expended N22 million released for security services, N13 million for honorarium among others. Responding, Saba blamed the abandonment on interference by the Federal Capital Development Agency (FCDA)

The Senate yesterday also demanded full disclosure of all sources of funding for the clean up exercise of the polluted Ogoni land in River State. Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, said the committee should know the sources of funding for the clean up exercise.

Hunkuyi noted the committee should be told the source of $2 million the Minister said had been released for the clean up exercise. The minister, Mrs. Amina Mohammed, said Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) was providing funding for the excercise.