Senate Queries Lai Mohammed Over N250m Project, N19m Travel Expenses

The Senate Committee on Information has questioned the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, over the nature of a project listed as “Completion of NTA Gashua Sub-Station Ongoing”.

According to the lawmakers, the sum of N250 million allocated for the said project has been released to the ministry.

This occurred on Tuesday when Mohammed led some top officials of the ministry to defend their 2021 budget estimates before the lawmakers at the National Assembly in Abuja.

At the defence session, members of the committee queried the minister why the project has not been executed to a reasonable level, despite the 100 per cent fund released for its execution in the 2020 fiscal year.

Mohammed, in his response, claimed that the project was sponsored by a lawmaker as constituency project and inserted into the 2020 budget.

He, however, stated that the fund for the project was released on September 24, 2020, making it difficult to execute it to a considerable level.

In their reaction, the committee members disagreed with the minister for tagging the project as a constituency one.

They argued that if it was indeed a constituency project as claimed, it would not have been included in the projects for budget defence.

But the minister promised to furnish the committee with details of the sponsor of the project, as well as the constituency.

The lawmakers also demanded an explanation from Mohammed over the N19 million expended on international travels, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

He had informed the committee that N19 million out N43 million was spent on travels.

The minister, in his response, explained that all the expenditures for international travels were for the period of January to March before the COVID-19 lockdown was imposed.

He added that before the lockdown, representatives of the ministry had travelled to attend several international summits.

According to Mohammed, they include the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) conferences, which held in Spain and the United Kingdom, among other trips.