The move concerns what the House described as a “more than five trillion naira operating surplus and eleven trillion naira revenue” that have yet to be remitted into government coffers.
A brief moment of division among lawmakers on Wednesday set the stage for the House of Representatives’ decision to summon the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso.
The move concerns what the House described as a “more than five trillion naira operating surplus and eleven trillion naira revenue” that have yet to be remitted into government coffers.
The summons, which became a subject of back-and-forth on the floor, followed the adoption of a motion moved by the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Bamidele Salam.
In the motion, the House drew attention to alleged financial liabilities involving charges collected in the administration of the “Remita Revenue Collection System” between March 2015 and April 2016, which lawmakers said were not transferred to the treasury by the apex bank.
These concerns, according to members, form part of infractions listed in the “Auditor General of the Federation's Report for 2022,” a document that also indicted several government agencies alongside the CBN.
But before the resolution was reached, the chamber witnessed a mild drama as lawmakers disagreed over whether the matter should be handed to an ad-hoc committee or left with the Public Accounts Committee.
The divide underscored the political sensitivity of compelling the CBN Governor to publicly account for the alleged “unremitted revenues.”
Eventually, the House resolved that the Public Accounts Committee would “continue with the investigation,” paving the way for Cardoso to appear before it in the coming days.
In November, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project demanded that Cardoso urgently account for what it described as “missing or diverted N3tn of public funds” highlighted in the 2022 annual report of the Auditor-General of the Federation, published on September 9, 2025.
In a letter dated November 15, 2025, and signed by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation described the issues raised by the Auditor-General as “grave violations of public trust, the Nigerian Constitution, the CBN Act, and global anti-corruption standards.”
SERAP tasked the CBN towards ensuring full recovery of the allegedly missing funds, return them to the treasury without delay, and identify those responsible for potential mismanagement, handing them over to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for investigation and prosecution.