Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Sheriff Oborevwori, and the Clerk of the House, Lyna Ochulor, have been accused of inability to account for N392, 473, 867 contained in the 2019 financial report of the house.
The funds were declared missing in Queried Capital Vouchers contained in Annexure IV of the 2019 Audit Report of the Delta State Government, signed by the Auditor General of the State, Paul Aghanenu, Punch reports.
According to the report, “The query fell on four projects ranging from lack of audit certificate to lack of receipt for project executed.
“As contained in Annexure IV of the report, the House spent N48,950,000 on the purchase of gift items on the 4th of October, 2019.
“Also, on the 16th of July, 2019, a Zenith bank Cheque, with serial number 43084, was issued for N303,095,270 for the purchase of official vehicles for honorable members.
“Speaker and clerk also spent 37,591,597 on furnishing of Press Centre on the 28 of November 2019. A Zenith Bank Cheque with number 36467 was issued for the project.
“In total, N392m could not be accounted for in his report of House of Assembly.”
The Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker, Mr. Dennis Otu, had disclosed that he was not positioned to speak on the matter.
He said, “The Chairman of House committee on the public account had made a statement to that regard.”
However, the Public Accounts Committee of the Delta State House of Assembly on Tuesday said the Clerk of the House and other agencies had been queried over the 2019 financial reports.
Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Anthony Elekeokwuri, explained that Sections 128 and 129 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended empowered the committee to conduct investigations into the matter.
According to him, “The Committee of the House is a Quasi-judicial body; the Public Accounts Committee has a legal authority to summon, sanction and discharge any financial related issue/matter. These were exactly what the committee did in the case of the Auditor- General’s Report of 2019.”
