Senator Orji Kalu. Photo credit: Kalu/X
The Senate on Tuesday intensified its oversight of the South East Development Commission, ordering its Managing Director, Mark Okoye, to account for alleged mismanagement of ₦16.6bn appropriated in the 2025 budget.
The scrutiny came during an investigative hearing by the Senate Committee on South East Development Commission, amid growing concerns over transparency in the utilisation of funds released to the relatively new regional development agency created to drive infrastructure and economic recovery in the South East.
The committee, chaired by Senator Orji Kalu, raised serious objections to several items in the commission’s financial report, including ₦153m reportedly spent on renting a single-room liaison office in Abuja and another ₦2.5bn categorised as “implied expenditure.”
Trouble began when committee members reviewed the financial documents submitted by the SEDC leadership during the session, prompting immediate questions over how the ₦16.6bn released from the federal budget had been managed.
