The House of Representatives wound down on Wednesday without approving the loan request by the immediate-past President Muhammadu Buhari for the Federal Government to pay some judgment debts totalling approximately N543,594,989,247.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management Ahmed Dayyabu, laid the report on the presidential request on Wednesday but the lawmakers resolved that work had not been concluded on it and stepped down its consideration till the 10th House.
Buhari had last month, at the twilight of his administration, written to the National Assembly to seek approval for payment of judgment debts owed by the government to the tune of $566,754,584.31, £98,526,012.00 and N226,281,801,881.64.
When the dollar is converted to N261,149,177,358.36 and the pound sterling is converted to N56,164,010,008.15, the debt is approximately N543,594,989,247.
According to the President, in a letter addressed to the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan; and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, the government will make the payment through the issuance of promissory notes.
Meanwhile, the House considered and adopted the report by the ‘Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate the Alleged Loss of over $2.4bn in Revenue from the Illegal Sale of 48 Million Barrels of Crude Oil in 2015 Including Crude Oil Exports from 2014 to Date.’
The chairman of the committee, Mark Gbillah, laid the report earlier on Tuesday, though the panel still summoned more top officials of the last administration at its last investigative hearing on Monday. read more…
