Osinbajo Replies House, Says N5.9bn EmergencyApproval Not Illegal

Says approval sequel to CBN request to forestall starvation in North-east

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday described as false and misleading, the report by the House Committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness that he illegally approved N5.865 billion for emergency intervention in food security challenge in the North-east.

The House committee in its report on Thursday, had alleged that the Vice-President in his then capacity as the acting president approved N5,865,671,939.26 through a memorandum directing the then Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, and the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, to act on the approval.

The committee also reported that the payment made following the approval and release of the money contravened the National Assembly approval. It also alleged that the food items for which the approval was made were not delivered to the expected beneficiaries.

But a statement by Osinbajo’s spokesman, Mr. Laolu Akande, yesterday, said the approval was made following a request by the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, as the facilitator of the National Food Security Programme.

According to him, the CBN boss had made the request in view of the urgent need to distribute grains such as rice, maize, soya beans and sorghum, to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the North-east through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

He also said the only way to secure the quantity of grains required at the time was to make a recourse to the National Food Security Progamme which he said had been earlier established by the federal government with a view to shoring up its strategic grain reserves.

Akande further explained that prior to the request made by the CBN governor, the United Nations World Food Programme (UN WFP), which he described as a major aid organisation and food supplier to the North-east, had on April 15, 2017, issued a warning that it would reduce its humanitarian support to about 1.8 million IDPs by as much as 85 per cent following a reduction in funding by the donor countries.

According to him, at about the same time, the United Nations Commission for Refugees in Geneva warned against the growing risk of mass deaths from starvation among the people living in the conflict areas.

He said it was in a reaction to these warnings that the federal government swiftly moved to prevent imminent disaster by establishing a strategic food intervention plan for the affected states adding that a Presidential Committee on Emergency Food Delivery to the North-east was quickly constituted to put machinery in place to arrest the menace.

Consequently, the statement said the federal government’s decision to urgently purchase stored grains for onward distribution to IDPs prompted the CBN to make proposal for the approval of 30,905.08 metric tonnes at the cost of N5,229,685,333.26 out of which he said Osinbajo approved N5,036,644,933.26.

However, the statement explained that a subsequent request by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for N829 million for general logistics, branding and packaging, among others, as well as contingent costs for movement of grains from various locations to the North-east eventually raised the total approval to N5.865 billion.