BY GODWIN OBI
The Senate Committee on Finance on Friday invited the Acting Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Okolieboh Sylva to throw more insight over alleged “unremitted” charges deducted from the Remitta payment platform into the Federation Account in the last 10 years.
In his explanation, the Acting Accountant General explained that even though his office was in charge of the Remitta payment platform, the office did not receive any amount from the service charge which according to him was shared between the Central Bank of Nigeria, Commercial banks, and the service provider, REMITTA.
This explanation however cut shot of the expectation of the Committee Chairman of Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Olamilakan (APC, Lagos West), hence he ordered full-scale investigation to unravel the mystery surrounding the “unremitted” money.
Senator Olamilakan-led Senate Committee was shocked to hear that the Office of the Accountant General received nothing from the billions of money deducted even though the platform belonged to it.
The Senate panel subsequently ordered a full probe into the matter and summoned the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), Godwin Emefiele, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation as well as the service provider, REMITTA to appear before it unfailingly on the 16th of November, 2022 to give explanations.
The Senate Committee also ordered the Acting Accountant General of the Federation to in the next week provide details of all the bank accounts of the office till date; threatening to step down the Office’s budget defense if it failed to come up with the accounts.
The Senate Committee said it decided to pay special attention on the books of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation as a result of recent alleged corruption that characterized the tenure of the immediate past Accountant General, Ahmed Idris who is currently facing charges of embezzlement with the Economic and Financial Commission(EFCC).
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