The failure of the minister of finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to honour the invitation of the House of Representatives investigative hearing committee on the alleged non-remittance of N450 billion by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the Federation Account stalled the public hearing of the probe. The development prompted the lawmakers to postpone the hearing by a week.
Minister of petroleum resources, Mrs. Dieziani Alison-Madueke, who was unable to attend, however, sent a letter explaining why she could not, apologising for it.? She was represented by a high-powered? delegation consisting of the permanent secretary of the petroleum ministry and the group managing director of the NNPC.
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The proceedings on the investigation, which is being handled by the joint Committee on Finance, Petroleum (Upstream), Petroleum (Downstream), and Gas Resources, was also marred by the failure of the key agencies to furnish the committee with relevant information that will aid the probe.
The accountant-general of the federation, Ogunniyi Otunla, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) also failed to attend the meeting.
In view of the development, chairman of the investigative committee, who also oversees the committee on finance, Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin, said the adjustment was to give ample time for all parties to prepare.
Announcing the changes, he noted that most of the agencies had just presented their documents to the committee secretariat at the venue of the hearing even as he stressed that the members needed to peruse the presentations before they act on them.
He said, “It is the opinion of the committee that we have to go through the documents and, as you can see, key persons expected at this hearing are absent without explanations, but we will like such people to be present physically.
“We will wait for them to come back from where they may have gone,” he added.
Co-chairmen of the joint committee also expressed displeasure at the failure of the heads of agencies to honour its invitation.
They said their action was a clear demonstration of “ inability to do the right thing at the right time,” adding that it has caused the parliament having to now waste taxpayers’ money as well as good time.
They warned that the House would not hesitate to invoke section 89 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), and issue a warrant of arrest on anybody if that is what will compel them to do what is right.
“The Seventh National Assembly, especially the House of Representatives, is prepared to bell the cat. If we invite a minister, it is the minister we want to see,” they said.
Declaring the hearing open earlier, speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Waziri Tambuwal said the exercise was not aimed at witch-hunting anyone but was pursuant to the regular oversight function of the House in line with sections 88 and 89 of the constitution.
“The imperative of this investigation is obvious.
As most of you are already aware, the persistent allegations of lack of transparency by the NNPC on the issue of remittance of revenue into the federation account has been in the public domain for a long time with public concern consistently on the rise.
It is this growing concern that culminated in the institution of the committee by the House through a resolution,” he said.
The House had, on September 22, 2011, mandated the committee to carry out a probe, through a resolution on a motion sponsored by Hon Samson Osagie on the alleged NNPC’s indebtedness of N450 billion to the Federation Account.