House Probes N500m Chibok School Rebuilding Fund, Safe School Initiative

By Adedayo Akinwale

The House of Representatives has resolved to set up an Ad-Hoc Committee that would investigate the status of the N500 million earmarked for the Chibok School Rebuilding Fund and the Safe School Initiative (SSI).

The resolution of the House followed the adoption of a motion of urgent national importance that was moved at the plenary yesterday by Hon. Satomi Ahmed.

Ahmed recalled the destruction of the school and the abduction of 230 school girls from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, by Boko Haram insurgents in 2014.

He further recalled that the abduction of the Chibok School Girls attracted national and international condemnation and led to the formation of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement by coalitions of civil societies and human rights organisation.

Ahmed noted that the federal government under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan announced a N500 million fund to rebuild the school in Chibok, Borno State.

He explained that the then Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, launched the N500 million school rebuilding project under the SSI programme in March 2015 at the Chibok school.

The lawmaker noted that the school was expected to have a state of the art library, laboratory, computer and ICT Centre, sports arena and clinic when it would be fully rebuilt and rehabilitated.

Ahmed stated: “Seven years after the foundation laying ceremony of the SSI and announcement of a N500 million fund by the government for the rehabilitation of the Chibok’s school, nothing has been done in the school and the school has remained closed.”

He highlighted the need for a detailed investigation of what happened to the N500 million and the SSI.

The ad-hoc committee has four weeks to do its work and report back to the House.