…ready to publish queries in national dailies and removal of affected officials from offices
By Haruna Salami
The Senate has threatened issuance of warrant of arrests against the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, Chief Executive Officers of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) , the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and others for perpetual refusal to honour its invitations for appearance before it.
The Chairman Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC), Senator Aliyu Wadada, (Nasarawa West) in a tense press conference on Tuesday at the Senate Wing of the National Assembly, vowed that steps would be taken for removal of affected heads of agencies from offices if they don’t turn a new leaf.
Senator Wadada, to carry out his threat said the recalcitrant heads of agencies would be reported to Senator Bola Tinubu by the Senate and not even the Committee, that they are causing disharmony between the legislative and executive arms of government and by extension, sabotaging his renewed hope agenda.
He specifically alleged that the Chairman of FIRS, Zacch Adedeji had ignored eight different invitations sent to him and even never responded to several communications forwarded to him.
Other agencies of government mentioned to have persistently refused to honour invitations of the committee are the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited that ignored invitations of the committee for Nine consecutive times, according to Wadada.
He said “If the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinibu, will set aside his busy responsibilities to come to the National Assembly to present budget, I wonder how any appointee will think and feel that he is above the law or he is too busy.
“Whoever invitation is extended to and he or she refuses to appear before this all important committee, warrant of arrest will be issued and we will call on the president to disengage that person because the person does not share in the dreams of Mr. President for making Nigeria a better place.
“From the inception of this committee to date, more than eight invitations have been extended to the chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service who has intentionally refused to appear before this committee and also hasn’t been responding to communications at all from this committee.
“From this moment, the line is drawn between this committee and Federal Inland Revenue Service whose Chairman risks a warrant of arrest if he ignores the next invitation for appearance.
“For NNPCL as well, the line is drawn. The next invitation NNPCL does not honour would attract warrant of arrest as well as call on President Tinubu to do the needful on the recalcitrant appointee.
“Similar fate awaits the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and heads of other agencies earlier mentioned .
“Instruments and instrumentality of governance available to us by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will surely be deployed against the affected heads of agencies”, he vowed.
