Senate panel accuses SEDC of renting one office for N153m

The Senate Committee on the South-East Development Commission (SEDC) has queried its Managing Director, Mark Okoye, for allegedly renting a single-room liaison office in Abuja for ₦153 million.  

The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Orji Kanu, issued the query when the Managing Director appeared before the Committee.

The revelation of alleged reckless spending by the SEDC followed an investigative hearing of the intervention agency. 

The lawmakers, at the hearing on Tuesday, also expressed dissatisfaction with the alleged mismanagement of N16. 6 billion received in the 2025 budget.

They further raised concerns over “implied expenditure” of N2.5 billion listed in the commission’s expenditure report. 

The Chairman of the Committee said that information obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that N13 billion remained out of the N16.6 billion released to the commission in December 2025, which suggested that N3.6 billion had already been spent. 

Kalu said: “The committee is disappointed with the financial report submitted by the agency, which is completely unacceptable.”

In his response to the allegations, the Managing Director of the Commission stated that all expenditures made from the fund received were properly executed and directed towards priority projects. 

According to Okoye: “Our approach has been to ensure that available resources are directed towards priority projects. 

“We want allocations to guide the procurement process so that contracts awarded can be backed by available funding. 

“What we want to avoid is a situation where contracts are awarded without the financial capacity to execute them.”