Angry lawmakers query National Population Commission for spending N1.2b on one-day summit

The House of Representatives Committee on Population has queried the National Population Commission (NPC) for spending N1.2 billion to host a one-day stakeholders’ summit on the 2023 Population and Housing Census.

This happened during the budget defence session of the commission by its Chairman, Nasir Isa Kwarra, who was represented by a Federal Commissioner, Bala Banye.

The committee demanded for details of the mock trial of the census.

It also demanded that the commission provide the expenditure pattern of the N5.2 billion spent on the mock census with details on its state by state spending.

The committee, headed by Mohammed Lawan, rejected the 2023 budget proposal of the commission for several discrepancies in the 2022 budget it presented.

A member of the committee, Chudy Momah, had demanded details of how the huge sum was expended on the summit which was held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja last August.

The Director of Census, Arinola Olanikpekun, who was mandated to respond to this by Kwarra’s representative, said the money was N1.9 billion.

She said the money was not just for the event that was held at the Villa but also for similar stakeholders’ meetings that were held in the 36 states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Olanikpekun said N129,520,000 was spent on the Villa event, while the rest was for the states.

NPC’s Director of Finance, Benjamin Fagbemi, who spoke on oath, agreed with Olanikpekun on the sum spent for hosting the event at the Villa.

He said N1.2 billion was spent on the other meetings that were held across the country.

Momah explained that the N1.2 billion was not captured in the document the commission submitted to the committee on the expenditure.

In view of the discrepancies in the presentation by the commission, the committee moved a motion that NPC’s budget defence be suspended.

The commission was directed to return next Wednesday with sufficient details about their financial activities.

Also, the committee rejected the 2023 budget proposal of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) for excluding its 2022 personnel budget expenditure from the documents it submitted.

NIMC’s Director General Aliyu Aziz, who appeared before the committee, had said the personnel budget in 2022 was N5.8 billion.

NIMC requested for N13 billion for personnel in the proposal it submitted.

The committee directed Aziz to return next Tuesday with detailed documentation on the commission’s budget performance. Nation