Akintoye made the allegation during the ministry's 2014
budget defence with the House committee on Niger Delta
Affairs, chaired by Hon Warman Ogoriba that of all the
constituency projects in the 2013 budget all were executed
except that of the Okitipupa\Irele federal constituency which
the ministry could not provide answer to when it was raised.
When the issue was raised by the deputy chairman of the
committee, Akintoye who was directly involved because he
came from the area in question, the Acting Minister of the
Ministry, Mr Deirus Ishaku could not come up with any
reasonable explanation but the chairman of the committee
assured his deputy that the committee would ensure that the
money was fished out from wherever it vanished into.
The committee invited the ministry of Niger Delta and the
office of the Special Adviser to the president on Amnesty to
explain to the committee how the 2013 budget was
implemented and what they proposed in the 2014 budget.
Speaking on the missing N110 million after the budget
defence, Akintoye who felt bad that why should his
constituency project could be singled out, stated that as the
only PDP member from Ondo State, he would not allow
anybody to rubbish his political career before his people.
He explained that "the fund was released for the constituency
projects in the 2013 budget, but my constituency money was
not released when all were released and all efforts since then
to unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of the money
proved abortive".
"I am the only PDP member from Ondo state in the House
and as deputy chairman of the committee I'm not expected to
be treated like this.
"The money is N110m and has been in the ministry in the
2013 budget and 99 percent of the money were released to the
listed constituency to benefit from the funds", he stated.
He pointed out that the former minister has embezzled the
money therefore appealed to the ministry to go ahead and
complete his constituency project this year so that his
constituents could enjoy the Niger Delta funds since they
also belong to Niger Delta.
Attempts to get the Acting minister Mr Deirus Ishaku to shed
more light on the allegation proved abortive as he was not
ready to respond to all the questions directed at him and his
entourage when they left the venue of the budget defence.
Rather his police orderly chose to shove aside journalists as
the minister insisted there was nothing like embezzlement
anywhere "and I'm not ready to talk to the press. "
Also, the committee has set up a technical team to be headed
by the deputy Chairman, Albert Akintoye to screen the
Amnesty Programme 2014 budget proposal of
N35.830billion.
Chairman of the Committee, Rep Warman Ogoriba made the
announcement at the budget defence on Friday.
He told the Amnesty Programme officials to come back this
week to further defend their proposals after the technical team
must have screened the budget properly.
Via: Vanguard
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