We’re investigating $289 million approve for NIA ― Reps committee

CHAIRMAN, House of Representatives Committee on Public Safety and National Intelligence, Honourable Aminu Jaji has disclosed that the committee is investigating the sum of $289 million approved to the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, under former President Goodluck Jonathan.

This is just as he disclosed that the committee is also investigating the allegations levelled against the new NIA boss, Ahmed Rufai Abubakar.

Honourable Jaji while fielding question from newsmen in Abuja spoke on the committee’s effort in investigating the agency.

According to him, “the most important thing is that there was $ 289 million approved by the agency. Then $43 million was discovered in Ikoyi, and another $44 million was discovered in their vault. If they procured or whatever they did, from there we can say they procured this and did this for so and so projects”.

On the $44 million that was reported missing in the agency’s vault, Honourable Jaji said that We later discovered from our meeting since last week that the $44m is not missing. For that one, I can tell you they moved the money from one place to another.

“We are still investigating. If we get 60 to 70 percent of what we are supposed to get, then we can tell you. But for now, I will tell you categorically that the money is not missing. They only moved it from the agency to another place pending when all these issues surrounding the agency are resolved”, he stated.

He further stated that “If you remember, this $44 million is part of the $289 million approved to the then DG, Ayo Oke. You know that in April last year, there was the issue of $43m found in Ikoyi. He tried to say that the $44m and the $43m are part of the $289m. But for us, we’re still working to see where the remaining $202m was placed. We only know about the $43m recovered in Ikoyi and the $44m recovered from their vault.

“In the course of our investigation, we’ll come up with where the $289m really is, not the $43m and not the $44m but the entire amount”, he stated.
On the new NIA boss, he said that ” there’s an investigation going on before the committee. We started the investigation last week. In the course of the investigation, we invited the immediate past acting DG of NIA. After that, we resolved to invite the present DG, NIA.
“Having interacted with him, we found out that already there are allegations against him in the social media, about his person and what have you. By and large, the issue of saying there are some directors in the agency that are protesting the appointment, as the chairman, we didn’t receive any information in this regard.

“We tried to find out from the DG and some staff working in the agency, and there’s no protest. For me, it’s just something anonymous, so there’s none”, he disclosed.