The Ministry of Science and Technology has been accused of “giving out two vehicles worth N17m to pay N2m debt it owed contractors.”

This bizzare settlement was uncovered by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts after the Auditor-General of the Federation, Anthony Ayine queried the ministry over the disappearance of two official vehicles with registration M50-10FG and MGO-12FG in a report submitted to the Senate. 

Ayine revealed that during the verification of non-recurrent assets of the ministry, it was discovered that the two vehicles were not seen and their whereabouts was not explained.

However when grilled by the senate committee, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Edet Akpan said the vehicles were seized by a court as result of debt the ministry owed contractors.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Matthew Urhoghide however rejected Akpan’s explanation and further stated that there’s no evidence that the vehicles were given to the contractors through court order.