REMITA COMMISSION: Emefiele, Accountant-General To Appear Before Senate Today

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele; the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris; and Sytemspec Nigeria Limited will on Wednesday appear before the Senate Joint Committees investigating the alleged deduction of N25 billion from the Treasury Single Account.Others expected to appear before the Joint Committees Chaired by Senator John Enoh are the Budget Office and the Deposit Money Banks.

Dino Melaye (Kogi West) had raised a motion on the floor of the Senate over alleged payment of N25 billion to an e-collection firm, REMITA, by a company called Systems Tech.However, the Senate resolved to the suspension of payment into the TSA to allow investigation of alleged fraud in the system and urged the CBN and the Ministry of Finance to comply.

Melaye said the appointment of REMITA as an agent of operations of the Treasury Single Account violated Nigerian laws, including section 162 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, and the Bank and other Financial Institutions Act, 2007.The issue was referred to the Committees on Finance, Banking and Financial Institutions and Public Accounts for further investigation.The Committees are to report back in four weeks.

The four weeks ends this week.President Muhammadu Buhari on September 15 had directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies to close their various accounts with commercial banks and pay all revenues into the Federal Government’s account with the CBN under the TSA policy..