National Assembly Complex

By Dele Ogbodo

The Senate has promised that it would leave no stone unturned in unravelling the alleged disappearance of N2.1 billion N1,000 new banknotes from the premises of the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Plc (NSPM) recently.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Senator Bassey Otu, representing Cross River South Senatorial District, while calling for calm over the scandal that has generated so much controversy, said: “We, the Senate, also have a couple of issues with the NSPM of which we don’t want to alarm the public. We are going into serious in depth investigation so that at the end of the day we shall come out with the best position on the issue that will deliver the best to our country.” 

Speaking at an interactive session with journalists at the National Assembly, Otu admitted that oversight of the banking sector has been very challenging because of the need to restructure the sector to make it deliver effectively and efficiently to all Nigerians.

“I was moved from the Finance Committee to Banking Committee in the senate and this sector has been a very challenging one, we are trying to restructure things there and see how things will go, and one of the first challenges we had there was the N5,000 banknote currency restructuring exercise.

“And one would want to thank all of you that came and stood together to crush the idea that was not acceptable by a great majority of Nigerians,” he said.

Speaking on other sectors of the economy, Otu said retrenching workers was not the solution to the country’s present economic problem, adding that there was a need to expand the country’s productive economic base.

“Our aim should be to make sure that we expand the base of the productive economy of this country and accommodate more people rather than retrench; and also entrench a good tax culture because a good lot of Nigerians are not paying tax at all,” he stated.