The North-East Development Commission (NEDC) has said that it has not
received funds from any foreign organization to ‘rehabilitate and
resettle’ Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the northeast.
The decade long Boko Haram insurgency in region, has displaced over
8.6 million people in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
In a statement Thursday in Maiduguri, NEDC’s secretary and legal
adviser, Benjamin Tafida disclosed that; “There was no way what was
not earned could disappear from commission’s coffers.”
Tafida was responding to the National Assembly alleged disappearance
of N100 billion from the commission’s deposited funds.
According to him, the commission has not received any funding from any
foreign organisation in respect of the rehabilitation and provision
for (IDPs) or victims of insurgent groups in Northeast.
While the commission remained committed to overcome multifaceted
challenges occasioned by the insurgents, he noted that: “It had become
necessary for it to set the records straight particularly as regards
the oversight functions of legislators.”
Continued; he said: “So far our sources of funding have been limited
to the Federal Government Statutory Allocations only.
“There is no funding whatsoever have been solicited nor received by
this Commission from anybody or organisation within and outside the
country.
“The Commission does not maintain any commercial bank account within
Nigeria or outside.
“The Commission maintains only the Treasury Single Account (TSA);
which is available and accessible to the general public.
“They may wish to review the record of our transactions and balances to date.”
He said that all receipts for 2019 till date; are no up to N100
billion that allegedly disappeared.
