Senate Panel Queries SEDC Over ₦4bn Spending, ₦153m Abuja Office Rent

The Senate Committee overseeing the South East Development Commission has queried the agency over its inability to fully account for more than ₦4 billion from its 2025 budget.

Premium Times and Daily Post reported that the issue came up when the Managing Director of the SEDC, Mark Okoye, appeared before the committee with other officials to explain the commission’s financial activities.

According to Daily Post, budget documents showed that the commission received ₦16.6 billion for its 2025 operations. Okoye told the committee that the SEDC had about ₦11.5 billion to ₦12 billion left in its account, implying that more than ₦4 billion had gone into operational expenses.

Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, who chairs the committee and represents Abia North, rejected the explanation and asked the commission to provide a detailed breakdown of the spending. He said the committee had ways to trace public funds and had also sent the Auditor General to review the commission’s activities.

The committee directed the SEDC leadership to return next Tuesday with full documentation showing how the funds were used.

Daily Post also reported that Kalu questioned documents indicating that the commission spends ₦153 million yearly on a small Abuja office, despite having its main headquarters in Enugu.

“You maintain a tiny office here in Abuja and are paying ₦153 million for a single room,” Kalu was quoted as saying.

Premium Times reported that the committee was dissatisfied with the commission’s inability to give a full account of the expenditure at the session. Vanguard’s RSS feed also carried the Senate query over the ₦153 million Abuja office rent.

The SEDC is one of the regional development commissions created under President Bola Tinubu’s administration. Tinubu signed the South East Development Commission establishment bill into law in 2024, and the commission’s board was inaugurated in February 2025.

The agency was set up to support infrastructure, economic development, environmental recovery and social progress across Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states.

Sources: Premium Times, Daily Post, Vanguard