The House of Representatives has threatened to petition the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), over heads of ministries, departments, and agencies of the Federal Government who shun its summons.
The House Committee on Public Accounts, at its investigative hearing on Wednesday, expressed its displeasure with the top government officials who allegedly refused to answer invitations to explain financial irregularities traced to them or clarify some records provided by other agencies.
The committee was particularly miffed by the non-appearance of the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele; Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation; Mele Kyari; Managing Director, Nigerian Port Authority, Hadiza Bala Usman; and the Director-General, Bureau for Public Enterprises, Alex Okoh.
The heads of the National Emergency Management Agency and the Petroleum Equalisation Fund had also failed to appear before the committee.
They had been summoned by the panel over the sale of Federal Government’s landed properties across the country.
Chairman of the committee, Wole Oke, told the clerk of the committee to forward a petition to the President, through the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Chief of Staff to the President, informing Buhari of the refusal by the officials to honour the invitations to them.
Oke said the panel would make the President to compel the officials and organisations to honour the invitations within seven days.
Meanwhile, the Transmission Company of Nigeria and the Nigeria Electricity Liabilities Management Company denied selling any government property or being in possession of any proceed from the sale.
The Managing Director of TCN, Sule Abdul-Aziz, said, “TCN was not involved in the sale of Federal Government’s landed property. When the Power Holding Company (of Nigeria) was privatised, all assets and liabilities were handed over to the Nigerian Electricity Liability Management Company and so, we have no presentation to make.”
The Director-General of NELMCO, Adebayo Fagbemi, also noted that not all PHCN assets were transferred to the company. He added that some of the properties handed over to him were already sold before they were handed over to the company.
Fagbemi added that the gazette authorising the transfer also moved some of the assets to other agencies, including the Nigeria Electricity Management Service Agency, the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria, and the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company.
