Reps Query Use Of N81bn By Great Green Wall For Tree Planting

The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on utilisation of ecological funds and other intervention funds into the Great Green Wall Project yesterday frowned on the agency for expending N81 billion on planting of trees in eleven frontline states of the North-East and North-West geo-political zones.

Chairman of the committee, Hon. Dabo Ismaila Haruna, who expressed displeasure at the whopping amount of money allegedly spent by the agency in eight years wondered how N81 billion could be used on tree planting alone. The committee also queried the Great Green Wall agency over N697.17 million spent on renovation of office accommodation and N11.28 billion on capital projects.

The lawmakers, particularly, picked holes in the presentation of the director general, who allegedly claimed to have executed some projects, which the committee claimed were actually executed by their colleagues under constituency projects.

The Chairman of the panel, Hon. Dabo Ismaila Haruna, had earlier informed that his probe panel is not to witch-hunt anybody or public servants but to investigate and recommend adequately for the government on certain urgent measures for the country to move forward.

The chairman further explained that relevant stakeholders including the National Agency for the Great Green Wall, the Federal Ministry of Environment, the Ecological Funds Office, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation as well as some state governments have been invited to shed light on the utilisation of the funds on the Great Green Wall Project.

According to the Chairman of the Ad-hoc committee, his committee has requested from critical stakeholders relevant documents on the nominal roll of staff of the agencies, the annual audited account statements, capital project operations account, bank details and other relevant documents which will enable them to state facts when making recommendations.

Earlier, the Director General of the Great Green Wall Project, Dr. Yusuf Maina Bukar, had explained that the N81 billion was actually expended on tree planting in eleven states. He said the Great Green Wall was a flagship project and brainchild of the Federal Ministry of Environment to address drought, deforestation, and some other environmental challenges in the arid zones of Nigeria.

He said that the agency’s main source of funding is from 15% of Ecological Funds and Federal Allocation adding that over 21 million trees had been planted in the chosen northern states to forestall desert encroachment. Responding to questions from the lawmakers, Bukar said that 21 million trees were planted adding that some of the trees were not seen due to vandalism while some other environmental challenges and other factors affected others.

In another presentation before the panel, the Accountant-General of the Federal Mrs. Oluwatoyin Madein represented by a deputy director, Mrs. Irene Nwangwu said that the agency had received a total of N19, 377, 726,506.95.