By Joshua Egbodo
Abuja
The House of Representatives has mandated its committee on Lake Chad to investigate the five million dollars allegedly granted to the Lake Chad Basin Commission by the Administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo for feasibility studies on how to divert rivers to the Lake.
The committee has been given eight weeks to carry out the investigation and report back to the House.
The resolution followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by Hon. Ahmed Abu, who noted that the percentage contribution towards the commission’s annual budget is 40 percent by Nigeria, 18 percent by Libya, 20 percent by Cameroon, seven percent by Niger, 11 percent by Chad and 4 percent by Central African Republic.
According to the lawmaker, the environmental audit report on the drying up of Lake Chad given by the Auditor-General of the Federation in October 2015 did not take into account the report of the feasibility studies.
He said the transaction of such magnitude paid for, with tax payers monies has not been given the due attention it deserved through monitoring and evaluation.