By NAOMI SHARANG

Members of the Senate Committee on Capital Market on Tuesday questioned the management of the Investments and Securities Tribunal (IST) over the expenditure of N16 million on cleaning and fumigation services in 2025.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the IST is a specialised, fast-track civil court established under the Investments and Securities Act 2007 (amended in 2025) to resolve capital market disputes.

It provides expert adjudication for investors and market operators, with appeals lying at the Court of Appeal.

Chairman of the tribunal, Aminu Junaidu, gave the figure when he appeared before the senate committee chaired by Sen. Osita Izunaso to defend the agency’s 2026 budget proposal.

Based on the tribunal’s 2025 budget performance report, the IST spent N16 million on cleaning and fumigation out of the N30 million appropriated for the item in the approved 2025 budget.

Junaidu explained that the tribunal conducts fumigation quarterly to prevent rodents from destroying sensitive documents.

He added that cleaning services were outsourced across its zonal offices.

The performance document of the tribunal shows that the tribunal spent N6.13 million on office stationery and computer consumables.

Junaidu said the stationery was necessary for writing judgments and producing Certified True Copies (CTCs) for applicants.

Although applicants pay for certified copies, he noted that the fees were remitted directly to the Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA).

“It is a tribunal. We must write our rulings, our judgement. We photocopy and give litigants not only litigants, whoever applies for CTC we have to give them, that is why we have more consumption than the internet.

He said that other expenditures by the tribunal in 2025 included: local travel, transport and training; N29 million, electricity charges; N981 million, telephone charges; N990 million.

“Internet access charges; N702 million, maintenance of motor vehicles and transport equipment; N3.4 million, plant/generator fuel costs; N39 million and local training; N9.5 million”.

A member of the committee, Sen. Ogoshi Onawo, representing Nasarawa South Senatorial District, had earlier criticised the agency’s continued spending on stationery at a time when’operations should be increasingly digitised.

Chairman of the committee, Sen. Izunaso had demanded an explanation for such a significant amount spent on cleaning services while critical areas such as publicity received little attention.

This, Izunaso said was in spite of the low public awareness of the tribunal’s activities. (NAN)

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