Senate pledges to unravel N30tr CBN loan to FG

Reps urge reactivation of price control board

The Senator representing Anambra Central, Victor Umeh, has said that the National Assembly is concerned about the current hardship in the country, assuring that investigations into the N30 trillion Ways and Means loan obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by the previous administration would be followed to its logical conclusion.

Briefing journalists in Enugu, the Senator said that the controversial issue of the purported N30 trillion Ways and Means, was said to have been borrowed from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by former President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration. Umeh assured that a committee, of which he is a member, is determined to get to the root of it.

Umeh said: “The issue of Ways and Means accumulated to N30 trillion. I was one of the Senators who demanded an investigation, and the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, set up a committee to investigate the matter. I am a member of that committee.

Umeh also said that the Senate is always interested in working for the benefit of Nigerians, stressing that the current problems in the country accumulated over the years.

Explaining that Nigerians are living in trying times, Umeh, however, assured that he is optimistic that the current interventions would lift the country again, urging Nigerians to be patient with the Federal Government.

However, as part of an ongoing effort to address the hardship faced by the citizenry, the House of Representatives has called on the authorities to reactivate the Price Control Board of Nigeria.

The decision followed the adoption of a motion initiated by Jesess Okey-Joe Onuakalusi at the plenary presided over by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Benjamin Kalu.

The House mandated its committee on commerce to investigate the daily increase in prices of commodities in the country at random and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.

Onuakalusi said that it’s unfortunate that marketers have taken the laws into their own hands by increasing the prices of commodities with impunity and to the detriment of consumers due to the absence of the price control board.

The lawmaker contended that the situation must not be tolerated because the take-home pay of average Nigerian civil servants cannot cope with the increase in the prices of commodities daily.