In compliance with their establishment acts,President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday approved the return of f Nigeria’s Emergency Management Agency,( NEMA), and the National Hajj Commission, NAHCON to the office of the Vice President.
Tinubu also approved a formal structure for the Office of the Vice President as well as the number of technical and administrative aides that will work with the Vice President.
NEMA was established in March 1999 with the mandate to manage disasters in the country.
The Agency had been in the eye of the storm for fraud allegations
During the Buhari’s administration in 2019,NEMA was under the supervision of the Vice President,Prof. Yemi Osinbanjo who was reported to have been stripped of his supervisory powers over NEMA and other agencies.
The report followed the 2018 indictment of the Vice President by the House of Representatives Committee on Emergency and Disaster over approval of N5.8billiom North East Intervention Fund.
The committee accused him of approving the said fund which it said did not follow due process and was mismanaged by the NEMA
However, speaking through his Media aide,Laolu Akande ,Osinbajo said that he did nothing wrong in approving N5.8 billion to avert a looming disaster as a result of food shortages in the northeast” in June 2017, when he was acting president The explanation of the Vice President nothwistanding, the House of Representatives insisted that he “may have questions to answer, as chairman of the governing board of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA)”.
The House said that the approval of the fund contravened the National Assembly’s power of approval “as the money was removed from the Eurobond” without the consent of the parliament adding that “there was no procurement, there was no due process, no contract, yet the money was released and expended”.
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