Senate and SEDC Lock Horns Over N16.6 Billion Allocation
The Senate and the management of the South East Development Commission (SEDC) have engaged in a heated dispute regarding the spending and accountability of the 2025 budgetary allocations currently under the agency's control. The Senate initiated a comprehensive investigation into the SEDC, uncovering what lawmakers described as troubling expenditure patterns and opaque financial disclosures during the commission's initial months of operation.
Defending the commission, its Managing Director, Mark Okoye, dismissed allegations of financial impropriety, asserting that all expenditures were carried out within approved guidelines and based on actual cash releases. He defended the contract for the rehabilitation of the proposed headquarters in Enugu, emphasizing that funds for the project had not been released and that all procurement procedures were strictly followed.
The probe, which places one of Nigeria's newest intervention agencies under intense scrutiny, focuses on the management of N16.6 billion released to the commission from its 2025 budget allocation. This has ignited fresh concerns over transparency, fiscal discipline, and accountability in public institutions entrusted with regional development.
During a tense oversight session in Abuja on Tuesday, members of the Senate Committee on the SEDC questioned several expenditure items in the agency's financial report, including N153 million allegedly spent on a liaison office in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and another N2.5 billion listed under expenditure headings that lawmakers said lacked adequate explanation. The hearing quickly evolved into a broader interrogation of the commission's financial management practices, with senators expressing concern that billions of naira earmarked for the economic transformation of the South-East may have been committed without sufficient public accountability.
Committee Chairman Orji Uzor Kalu disclosed that records available to lawmakers showed the commission received N16.6 billion in December 2025 but currently had only about N13 billion in its accounts, indicating that approximately N3.6 billion had already been expended. Kalu faulted the financial statement presented by the commission, describing it as grossly inadequate for legislative scrutiny and incapable of providing lawmakers with a clear picture of how public funds had been utilized. “This committee is disappointed with the financial report given, which is completely unacceptable,” Kalu declared, warning that every kobo released to the commission must be properly accounted for.
The committee's concerns were reinforced by Senators Enyinnaya Abaribe, Victor Umeh, and Austin Akobundu, who questioned the rationale behind some expenditures and insisted that the agency provide detailed documentation to support every transaction undertaken since receiving federal allocations.
HURIWA Commends Senate, Calls for EFCC Investigation
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has commended the Senate Committee on SEDC for what it described as a courageous, diligent, and constitutionally mandated exercise of legislative oversight in probing the commission's financial activities. HURIWA stated that the revelations emerging from the Senate investigative hearing on the management of over N16.6 billion released to the commission raise disturbing questions that demand immediate intervention by anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies.
The rights group expressed particular outrage over allegations that the commission allegedly expended N153 million on the rent of a one-room liaison office in Abuja and listed another N2.5 billion under what was reportedly categorized as implied expenditure. According to HURIWA, such allegations, if established through investigation, represent a shocking abuse of public trust and a reckless deployment of scarce public resources at a time when millions of citizens in the South-East region continue to grapple with poor infrastructure, youth unemployment, insecurity, inadequate healthcare facilities, and widespread economic hardship.
HURIWA emphasized that the Nigerian people are entitled to know how every kobo appropriated for regional development is spent, and that the allegations emerging from the Senate hearing are deeply troubling and demand an immediate, transparent, and independent investigation. It noted that no public official entrusted with development funds should be allowed to treat public resources as personal assets. HURIWA specifically called on the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to immediately invite the Managing Director and relevant management officials of the SEDC for interrogation and forensic scrutiny of all expenditures made from the N16.6 billion allocation.
