House Committee on Nutrition and Food Security, has threatened to issue warrant of arrest to the Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture, Ayo Sontinrin and the Director-General of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, Abubakar Dabban.
The Chike Okafor led Committee made the threat at the resumed investigative hearing of the Committee, on the alleged misuse of N1.2 Trillion agricultural interventions funding in Abuja.
The panel warned that, the warrant would be issued if they fail to appear at the investigative hearing.
The Committee Chairman said: The Committee held the maiden Investigative Hearing on 8th April, 2025 with the Central Bank of Nigeria in attendance led by Hamman, Kwali John, Acting Director of the Finance Development Department among other notable invitees. The 2nd Hearing held on 16th June, 2025 with the attendance of Central Bank of Nigeria and the Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs) still indebted to CBN under the Anchor Borrower Programme. Sterling Bank’s representative absorbed the bank from any indebtedness to which the CBN responded through a letter to the Committee dated June 25th, 2025 to affirm the position of Sterling Bank that it does not have any outstandings.
“As the investigations went on, including forensic auditing and evaluation, few organizations have proven their innocence by honoring the invitations of the Committee, appearing before the Hearings, opening up their books with details answers to our inquiries and going extra miles to show verifiable evidences to support their claim of non-involvement in misuse of agricultural funding. Such organizations will be commended in the Committee’s Report to the House, at the end of the investigations”.
“On the other hand, the Committee wants to put it in the public Know, that series of letters and invitations sent out to the following: the Bank of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, National Agricultural Land Development Council to appear before at the last two Hearings of this Committee, were met with either no response or very flimsy excuses for non-attendance. This is totally unacceptable. The Bank of Agriculture only responded with the excuse of having a new Managing Director and I wrote back to the MD to say, that the bank is an ongoing concern, that having a new MD is not enough reason not to honour the invitation of this panel.
“I sincerely hope that the Bank of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria will be present tomorrow because the public hearing continues tomorrow. We are not the police but this a quasi-judicial institution. If we don’t see them tomorrow, we would have to invoke all the powers of the parliament to make them appear before us”.
Meanwhile, the Committee has demanded documents and correspondences between Prospect Micro-Finance Bank and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over the disagreement on the amount given to the Bank, the status of N6 Million recovered by the Bank from beneficiaries and other issues.
This followed a presentation before the Committee by the Managing Director (MD) of the Micro-Finance Bank, Mr Isaac Inwang who informed the Committee that, N14.6 million was given to the Bank which were disbursed to 30 Poultry farmers out of which N6 Million was recovered and kept with the Bank awaiting further instructions from the CBN.
However, the Central Bank faulted the claim of the Bank saying that, N15.5 million was given to the Bank for the disbursement.
A CBN Deputy Director, Hassan Tom stated that, the Miicro-Finance Bank has breached the guidelines and extant laws which directed that, all recovered funds must be return to the CBN within a specified period, but the Bank held on to the recovered funds for more than three years.
The Committee Chairman therefore directed the Micro-Finance Bank to provide the documents requested on Wednesday, November 19 and prepare to provide answers to some salient issues observed in his submissions and what the CBN saidasreagrads to breach of the law and guidelines governing the disbursement of funds and recovery.
Similarly, the Committee also discharged the National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) after a submission by its Director General (DG), Alhaji Fatuhu Muhammed.
The Committee confirmed as stated by the DG, that, the agency did not participate in the running or implementation of the Anchor-Borrowers agricultural intervention.
Chairman of the Committee stated that, the CBN has already informed them that, the NASC was not a participant in the intervention.
He commended the DG for appearing the Committee out of respect as a former member of the House and his regards for constituted authority.
Recall that the House on Tuesday July, 1, 2025, mandated its Committees on Nutrition and Food Security and Agricultural Production and Services, Agricultural Colleges and Institutions and Finance to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the alleged misuse of government interventions and agricultural funding by departments, agencies, Schemes and Programmes of the Federal Government outside the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
