Reps decry N2.6bn spent on Chibok school

AHouse of Representatives panel said the sum of N2.6 billion spent on the reconstruction of Government Secondary School (GSS), Chibok should not have been expended on only one school.

The Committee on IDPs, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons headed by Muhammad Sani Zorro (APC, Jigawa) said in Abuja yesterday that there are many other schools in the Northeast region that needed to be reconstructed.

At a session with officials of the Presidential Committee on North East Initiative, the panel said the fund was under the Save School Initiative (SSI).

“For me, if you have N2.6bn and you committed it to just one school when there are many other schools, then I think the aim is defeated. It’s not as if the Chibok school was bombed, so why spend that amount on the school?” Zorro said.

The Director of Administration of PCNI, Umar Musa Balami, told the panel that the SSI was inaugurated in 2014 due to the attack on Chibok School.

He said the money was realized at that time and that it was initially domiciled at finance ministry but later transferred to PCNI after its formation in 2016.

“When we took over, there was N2.6bn, but I can’t say if the SSI fund is part of it,” he said. The meeting was postponed to today due to lack of documents and the absence of some stakeholders.