The House of Representatives on Thursday commenced efforts to probe the alleged theft of N2bn from the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company by constituting a special ad-hoc committee to carry out the investigation of the funds from the vault of the NSPMC and submit its report to the House within four weeks.
The resolution on this matter was sequel to a motion moved by the chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Hon. Albert Sam-Tsokwa and 60 others, entitled, “Urgent need to investigate the alleged theft of N2bn at the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC)”.
Hon Sam-Tsokwa said, “In the first week of December 2012, a staggering sum of N2.1 billion of newly printed N1,000 notes mysteriously disappeared in the course of production or from the vaults of the NSPMC. This is not the second time that large sum of monies have allegedly disappeared in the course of production due to security breaches as admitted by the management of the company.”
“What is more worrisome is the conflicting information on the actual amount of money declared missing. While the Central Bank governor said it was N2 billion, the managing director of the company had claimed that the amount missing was N1.5 billion. The media adviser to the managing director also claimed that the actual amount missing is N900,000, due to security breach and that a security operative was arrested in Lagos with the said sum of N900,000,” he added.
Hon. Sam-Tsokwa also brought to the attention of his colleagues that 39 workers had been summarily sacked from the company once knowledge of the theft went public, stressing that the most important thing was that a security company had been breached, which should not be allowed.
The House unanimously adopted the motion when it was put to vote by the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal.