The Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Ayo Sontinrin, and the Director-General of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Dr. Abubakar Adamu Dabban, by the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Nutrition and Food Security, Chike Okafor, have been threatened with warrants of arrest.
Okafor made the threat during the resumed investigative hearing on Tuesday regarding the alleged misuse of N1.2 trillion in agricultural intervention funding.
He explained: “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 second hearing was held on 16th June 2025, with attendance from the Central Bank of Nigeria and Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs) still indebted to the CBN under the Anchor Borrower Programme. Sterling Bank’s representative absolved the bank from any indebtedness, which the CBN confirmed through a letter to the committee dated 25th June 2025.
“As the investigations progressed, including forensic auditing and evaluation, a few organizations have proven their innocence by honoring the committee’s invitations, appearing before the hearings, opening their books, providing detailed answers, and submitting verifiable evidence supporting their claim of non-involvement in the misuse of agricultural funding. Such organizations will be commended in the committee’s report to the House at the end of the investigations.”
Continuing, the chairman said: “On the other hand, the committee wants the public to know that a series of letters and invitations sent to the Bank of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, and the National Agricultural Land Development Council to appear at the last two hearings were met with either no response or flimsy excuses for non-attendance.
“This is totally unacceptable. The Bank of Agriculture responded only by citing a new Managing Director as a reason for non-attendance. I wrote back to the MD to stress that the bank is an ongoing concern, and having a new MD is not sufficient reason to ignore the invitation of this panel.
“I sincerely hope that the Bank of Agriculture and ARCN will be present tomorrow as the public hearing continues. We are not the police, but this is a quasi-judicial institution. If they fail to appear, we will invoke all powers of the parliament to compel their attendance.”
Meanwhile, the committee has demanded documents and correspondences between Prospect Micro-Finance Bank and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regarding disagreements over the amount given to the bank, the status of N6 million recovered from beneficiaries, and other related issues.
This follows a presentation by the Managing Director of Prospect Micro-Finance Bank, Mr. Isaac Inwang, who informed the committee that N14.6 million was given to the bank and disbursed to 30 poultry farmers, of which N6 million was recovered and kept with the bank pending further instructions from the CBN.
However, the Central Bank disputed the bank’s claim, stating that N15.5 million was given for the disbursement.