The Senate Committee on Environment, on Monday, discovered that the sum of N16 billion debt owed by state governments was included in the Ministry of Environment’s 2022 budget presented.
Chairman of the Committee and former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu disclosed this after he presented his budget to the appropriation committee in Abuja, saying that the debt was owed by state governments and not the federal government.
Ekweremadu expressed dissatisfaction that similar money of about N6 billion was included in the 2021 budget, which his Committee had queried the Ministry of Environment in times past.
He condemned the action of adding another sum of N16 billion debt in the 2022 budget for the federal government of Nigeria to service.
He said the loan was approved by a world institution for states government in the country and not for the Federal, with a moratorium of ten years before the states government would begin the initiation of payment of the loan and wondered why the ministry keeps reflecting it in each year’s budget cycle.
He urged the Committee on Appropriation to write to the Ministry of Finance to find ways of retrieving the N16 billion.
While speaking to newsmen, Senator Ekweremadu who failed to mention the states that collected the loan said he foresaw a grand plot to defraud the Federal Government.
He expressed confidence that the Senate Committee on Appropriation would get to the root of the matter and handle the case in the best interest of Nigerians.