Lawmakers Angry As Malami, Emefiele, Others Shun House Of Reps Committee On Illegal Sale Of Crude Oil

Members of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the alleged loss of 2.4 billion dollars from the illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude were left angry on Wednesday after federal government officials failed to honour their invitation.

Naija News reports that the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed; and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele were all summoned to appear before the committee but failed to honour the invitation.

The committee chairman, Mark Gbillah who expressed disappointment with the development on Wednesday pointed out that the invited officials also failed to honour last week’s invitation of the committee or respond to any correspondence from the committee as well.

The committee vowed to take more stringent actions if the government officials failed to honour the next invitation extended to them.

The top government officials are expected to appear before the committee to explain the inflows from recoveries from whistleblowers.

According to the chairman of the committee, documents from the Accountant General showed that payments have been made to whistle blowers and recoveries from whistle blowers but no evidence to show that those monies were expended in accordance with the relevant laws.