By Henry Umoru & Joseph Erunke

ABUJA—SENATE President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, vowed yesterday that there would be no cover-up in the probe into the funding of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in the North East.

Inaugurating the Senate Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the use of the fund that had been allocated for the humanitarian crisis in the North East, Saraki said the committee, led by Senator Shehu Sani, was being assigned a task to act on behalf of the 4.5 million families in the North East zone of the country who were in dire need of assistance; one million people in in danger of extreme malnutrition and over one million Nigerians beyond the reach of aid.

Saraki said: “The whole world is watching; we must ensure that there are no cover-ups as this is the first committee of its kind that had been inaugurated to embark on this task.

“The work that this committee will be doing will impact the lives of the 4.5million families in the North East who are in dire need of relief, rehabilitation and other forms of assistance.

“The recommendations that you will submit from the investigation will help us ascertain how much had been spent in our response to this crisis, and will also help us improve our coordination efforts so that the international community will have confidence in us.”

Saraki, who has consistently pressed for better coordination and oversight in the nation’s response to the humanitarian situation in the North East, also charged the committee to ensure that it delivered on its mandate.

In his comments, Sani, who acknowledged that with international partners scaling up their donations to the North East, it was important to determine how funds allocated to the region were being spent.