Reps accuse minister of squandering N3.5b police fund – The Nation
November 13, 2009 by Bunmi Awolusi
The House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs yesterday queried the Minister for Police Affairs, Mr. Ibrahim Lame, for allegedly not being able to account for N3.5 billion.
Speaking at an interactive session, the lawmakers wondered why the minister spent such an amount without recourse to the National Assembly.
The money was meant for strategic crime prevention in seven cities namely Lagos, Ibadan, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Enugu and Kano.
The lawmakers discovered that most of the companies that were given various contracts by the minister have no fixed addresses.
Besides, the fund did not achieve 20 per cent of its intended purpose.
Some lawmakers, who felt Lame was withholding information on the issue, walked out of the session.
The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Usman Nafada who was at the session, urged the minister to produce a breakdown of the amount spent in each of cities.
