The Senate has accused the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of obstructing its investigation into how Ways and Means loans given to the federal government between 2015 and 2023 were used.
Speaking in Abuja after receiving an interim report from consultants, the chairman of the ad-hoc committee investigating the loans, Senator Isah Jibrin (APC, Kogi East), noted that the CBN had refused to submit crucial documents needed to complete the probe.
“None of the documents was submitted to us,” he said, adding that the committee would no longer entertain representatives from the CBN unless a deputy governor of the bank attended future meetings. “The least person that will attend the next meeting should be a deputy governor of CBN. What you are telling us is not the truth. We have not received the documents. I don’t want to deceive the public here.”
The Senate had tasked the committee with completing the probe as soon as possible, but Jibrin noted that the CBN’s lack of cooperation was delaying the process. “The information we have here is not different from what we have heard all along,” he stated.
According to him, despite repeated efforts by the committee and consultants to obtain the necessary documents, the CBN has failed to provide them. He noted that even a meeting with a deputy governor of the bank had not resulted in any progress.
“So let the Nigerian public know that this assignment has been hindered by the Central Bank of Nigeria. They will deny those documents. After this, you must avail us or avail the consultants, all the documents that they require to complete this assignment,” Jibrin stated.
He further explained that the committee wanted transparency in how the loans were spent and that preliminary findings already pointed to “major infractions” by the CBN. “We need all the documents without exception. Whatever documents the consultants need to ensure that this job is completed efficiently and as soon as possible, you must provide,” he said.
Jibrin also warned that the committee would set a deadline for the CBN to produce the documents. “As it is, we don’t have a choice but to give them a time within which they must provide all the documents to the consultants. You just have to make sure that the documents are sent to the consultants.”
Meanwhile, CBN’s representative at the meeting, Hamisu Abdullahi, Director of Banking Services, claimed that the apex bank had provided all requested documents. However, Jibrin rejected this claim, insisting that the committee had not received the necessary files.
