The House in plenary decided to investigate the missing of the N2.1 billion from the NSPMC’s vaults after considering a motion sponsored by 61 legislators.
Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Hon. Albert Sam-Tsokwa, who led the debate on the matter, recalled that the amount got missing in December last year.
According to him, the missing funds, consisting of newly printed N1,000 notes mysteriously disappeared during production, adding that that was the second time such a large sum of money had allegedly disappeared from the company due to security breaches.
He said: “We are disturbed that there has been conflicting information on the actual amount of money declared missing. While the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it was about N2 billion, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC) has claimed that the amount was N1.5 million and the media adviser to the managing director claimed that the actual amount missing was N900,000.
“He also claimed that it was due to a security breach and that a security operative was arrested in Lagos with the said sum of N900,000. It is also important to point out that about nine workers of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company were summarily dismissed from the establishment after news of the theft became public knowledge.”
The House later adopted the motion and mandated the ad hoc committee to investigate the matter and make its findings known in four weeks.
