Everest Amaefule
The Ministry of Information and Culture has launched an inquest into how a memo from the ministry requesting for a loan to fund the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed’s trip to China was leaked.
In a letter signed by Director of Public Relations and Protocol, Mr. Peter Adama, and addressed to Acting Director General, NBC, the minister had requested for a loan of N13, 120,470 to enable his team to travel for an engagement regarding the promotion of tourism.
Findings by our correspondent showed that some officials in the finance department of the NBC were on Friday summoned to the headquarters of the ministry at Radio House, Abuja, to explain how an official memo leaked to Sahara Reporters, an online news medium.
The outcome of the probe was not yet known as of the time of filing this report.
However, it was learnt that top officials of the broadcast regulatory agency were in Lagos when the memo arrived on Thursday and it was therefore submitted to the finance department.
It was also learnt that the absence of top officials of the NBC was responsible for the delay in the approval and release of the funds to the minister.
Investigation by our correspondent showed that the NBC workers had been grumbling that at a time that the regulatory agency had been grounded by lack of funds, the minister kept bringing requests for funding.
It was learnt that since the minister assumed office in November 2015, he had made requests to the agency three times.
A source, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said, “Security men at NBC have not been paid since January. The last time they were paid, the contractor was asked to source for money and be refunded later.
“There is no money to buy fuel to power the generators, yet requests for funding keep coming from the minister.”
Several calls to the Special Assistant to the Minister on Media, Mr. Segun Adeyemi, could not be answered, but the Chief Press Secretary to the Minister, Mr. Joseph Mutah, told our correspondent on the telephone that the official response of the ministry was underway. It had yet to be received as of the time this report was submitted.
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