The House of Representatives has threatened to summon the Ministers of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, and Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), for failing to respond to questions about alleged illegal crude oil sales to China and the use of funds recovered through whistleblowers without National Assembly appropriation.
The House’ Ad Hoc Committee is to Investigate Alleged Loss of Over $2.4 Billion in Revenue from Illegal Sale of 48 Million Barrels of Crude Oil Export in 2015, Including All Crude Oil Exports and Sales by Nigeria from 2014 to the Present.
The Federal Government officials have failed to appear before the committee at its last hearing, and they have also failed to show up at the latest hearing.
Chairman of the committee, Mark Gbillah, said, “We have not been getting cooperation from the Ministry of Finance and Attorney-General’s office with regards to salient issues that this committee is investigating. We have seen documentation from the Accountant-General’s office that shows that the Honourable Minister of Finance approved the payment of a significant and substantial amount of money to so-called whistle-blowers where details of monies recovered were not provided.”
“We have heard media reports by the Federal Government indicating that millions of dollars were recovered through whistle-blower revelations on behalf of the country. But we as a parliament have not seen where those monies were routed through the constitutional appropriation process before they were expended. The constitution is very clear about the receipt and expenditure of Nigeria’s money. But we have not seen evidence from the Honourable Minister of Finance or from the Attorney-General’s office, and we have not seen any statutory power provided to the Attorney-General to be involved in the expenditure of Nigeria’s commonwealth.
“There was an incident that was revealed by a whistle-blower who made a formal report to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU). About $200m paid into two companies’ accounts – Biz Plus and GSCL – allegedly for consultancy services, which allegedly were approved, they said, by the Attorney-General’s office on the approval of Mr President.”
“We need the Honourable Minister of Finance and the Attorney-General of the Federation to appear before this House to provide clarity on the inflows that have come in from whistle-blowers’ recoveries and to provide clarification about these monies that have recovered. And the CBN as well will be required to provide information that has been provided by these whistle-blowers about such substantial amounts of monies that were paid supposedly and allegedly for consultancy services, when there is no record of any agreement of any sort entered into for those services.
“These are very weighty allegations and as a responsible House, we owe everybody fair hearing and a benefit of the doubt, which is what we have been seeking to accord those who have been mentioned in these allegations. But we find it ‘unfashionable’ that the Honourable Minister of Finance and Attorney-General have not bothered to respond to any of the correspondence from the committee, and this in our opinion shows a lack of regard for the institution, not only of House, but also of the National Assembly as a whole.
“We will make this further appeal to the Honourable Minister of Finance and the Attorney General of the Federation, and all others who have not responded or who have not honoured the committee’s invitations to do so in the national interest. And in the event that they fail to do so, we will be constrained to proceed to summons and other statutory powers that the committee and the National Assembly can exercise in this regard.
“So, we want to make this a formal and final notice to those concerned – the Honourable Minister of Finance and the Attorney General of the Federation – to cause appearance before the committee, to give evidence with regards to the allegations that have been made, with regards to the questions that the committee has requested them to answer and to respond to,” he said.
