The Senate, has denied being involved in the N2.5 billion loan deal scandal within the ranks of the Federal Government-owned Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC).
Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja, its spokesman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and the Chairman, Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Magnus Abe, said the legislature did not, at any time, authorise the borrowing.
According to Abaribe, “Under the law, no government agency can borrow money without the approval of the National Assembly.
“We have to know if that was done first. But then the question to ask under the circumstance is, what happened to the N161billion supplementary appropriation that was approved by the National Assembly for government to take care of the shortfall in the fuel subsidy budget, particularly to ensure steady supply of petroleum product during the yuletide.”
On his part, Abe said, “As at this afternoon (Tuesday), there’s no record of the loan deal before us. We are still trying to confirm the loan from NNPC.
“The committee read about the loan deal on the pages of newspapers like other Nigerians and we have had concerned Nigerians calling to ask whether the National Assembly approved the loan. We have no record of such before us,” he said.
