26 states and some ministries departments and agencies on Monday shunned the ongoing investigative hearing on the total consolidated accruals and utilisation of ecological funds from 2010 to March 2022 by the house of representatives.
Members of the investigative panel however threatened to issue warrants of arrest against government agencies and state officials who fail to appear in the next 48hours to defend and reconcile spending from the ecological funds.
The ecological fund is another government intervention that has been marred with controversy over the years with over 1trillion in allocation allegedly disbursed to states and beneficiary MDAs majorly because some states do not have to prove projects executed.
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The President had in October challenged states to give an account of how they spent amounts allocated to them from the Ecological Fund to tackle floods and other ecological problems.
This investigative panel is geared towards finding answers to the numerous questions raised in connection to the funds.
However, only 10 of the states invited were represented, a situation that angered the lawmakers.
Further fueling the suspicion that some states deliberately shunned the probe panel.
Secretary of the body of state commissioners in his reaction alleged that some state governors refused to grant permission to their commissioners to appear before the panel.
The committee also disclosed that some were given funds from the ecological fund for which they do not qualify asking them to refund such funds immediately.
The committee however took submissions from the states and agencies present at the hearing with the promise to study it before the next hearing date which was fixed for Wednesday, November 9.
Editor: Ebuwa Omo-Osagie
