NDLEA to explain how it spent over N1.5bn on recruitment of 5,000 personnel

Senate committee on Public account has asked NDLEA to explain how and why on its books it spent N1.5 billion to recruit 5,000 personnel. This came to limelight has raised the Senate committee raised alarm over how the National Drugs Law and Enforcement Agency, NDLEA spent over  N1.5 billion for the recruitment of 5,000 personnel in 2021 alone. The Senator Matthew Urhoghide, led Senate Committee on Public Accounts while querying  the NDLEA on the spending, said that the  N1.5 billion was collected through the  Service Wide Votes by the anti- drug agency.

At the investigation on expenditure with regard to the  Service Wide Votes, Senator Matthew Urhoghide wondered how the agency could  spend the bogus amount on the recruitment of 5,000 personnel in one year. On his part, the Vice Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ibrahim Hadejia specifically wondered how the agency spent such amount on recruitment of 5000 personnel. Responding to Senators query,  the Director of Finance and Account,  Abdullaahi Shitu who represented the Chairman of the NDLEA  claimed that part of the money was used to renovate a building at the training camp of the agency. 

The Lawmakers who rejected the explanation and said that the Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) submitted by the agency showed it was for recruitment not for the building in the train camp. The Committee therefore ordered the NDLEA to present to it, the nominal roll of the 5,000 personnel of the agency for vetting today, Thursda