The House of Representatives has queried the National Population Commission over alleged discrepancies in its expenditure relating to the N200 billion spent on the suspended National population census.
But the Commission insists it has been diligent and transparent as it explains that the figure was not a lump sum but money spent between 2015 and 2023.
Several petitions seeking a probe into the expended N200 billion by the National Population Commission are before the House of Representatives.
A motion on the floor of House mandates the Committee on Population to take up the task of unravelling the veracity of the allegations against the Commission.
At a fact-finding meeting, the Committee was blunt in its enquiries and observations.
It raised a number of questions bothering on alleged financial misappropriations and demands answers.
The legislators want to know how a whopping N157 million was spent on social media and the whereabouts of the N345.9 million from UNICEF and N75.21 million from another international organisation.
Given the right of reply, the Commission through its Director General explained that the N200 billion being touted was not a lump sum but money expended over the last nine years.
He said a head count in Nigeria with an estimated population of 223 million and a land mass of 923,000 square kilometers, is capital intensive and energy sapping in terms of census mapping.
One assurance from the committee is that the parliament will do all within its reach to ensure the suspended population census is carried out this year as the committee prepares to go on oversight to NPC offices nationwide and see for itself all procurements that have been made and other claims by the commission.
