Nigeria’s Accountant-General, Ahmed Idris, has been indicted by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on investigation of recovered loot and assets of government.
On Thursday, the committee heard how Idris transferred about N60bn to different ministries, departments and agencies without due process.
He reportedly transferred N20bn to the Ministry of Defence.
According to findings by the committee, chaired by Adejoro Adeogun, the accountant also transferred N20bn to capital development fund after one year without recourse to due process.
Findings further showed in the documents tendered by the accountant before the lawmakers that another N19.6bn was illegally transferred from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission recovery account to African Development Bank, totalling N59.6bn.
He admitted carrying out the withdrawals without recourse to relevant financial laws guiding the operations of his office.
Idris had appeared alongside the Minister for Finance, Zainab Ahmed, who briefed the lawmakers on the need to rebuild a framework to address the gaps in financial transactions.
The respondent explained that there was a budgetary approval for defence, but that funds were not readily available; hence the resort to the EFCC account.
There had been questions on the transparency of the Buhari administration’s use of recovered funds, including from the late General Sani Abacha, a former head of state.
