There was a mild drama on Tuesday at the National Assembly when the Senate Committee on Public Accounts threatened a warrant of arrest against the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, for shunning several invitations to brief it on issues.
Berating the police, it said “And Nigerian Police Force, when they invite you and you don’t go, they don’t take it easy. I don’t know why they are not coming to this committee. The public should know.”
The Committee also moved against some other government agencies for similar offences, warning that it had drawn the line and would no longer tolerate such behaviour.
Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Aliyu Wadada, told reporters in Abuja that the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Nigerian Customs Services (NCS) and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have consistently defied “our invitations.”
It also declared that if things continue the way they are going it would also move for the arrest of the Chief Executives of the FCT Internal Revenue Services, and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), that were petitioned by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF).
Wadada said, “it is important for those of us that are here and the entire Nigerian public to know that quite a number of agencies that are significant and relevant to the project called Nigeria have been evasive and also have avoided appearance before this committee, either to respond to Auditor General’s query or to respond on status enquiry. It is pertinent to know that we, nobody in Nigeria, is above the law.”
He said in the “discharge of the responsibilities bestowed on this committee by the Quran and the Bible of Nigeria, that is the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We are all supposed to operate under the laws guiding our various engagements as citizens of Nigeria. If the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinibu, will set committee to budget to the National Assembly, I wonder how any appointee will think and feel that he is above the law or he is too busy I wonder how any appointee will think and feel that he is above the law or he is too busy to appear before the members of the committee.
“I wonder how any appointee will think and feel that he is too busy to appear before the members of the committee. 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 to and for making Nigeria a better place.
“Permit me to state that 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.
“If he truly shares the dream of the renewed hope I wonder why he will not come here for us to exchange what we have going forward to make Nigeria a better place and he should also be reminded that we on this side of the divide are sitting on mandate not appointment.
We are not appointed, we were elected by Nigerians and so if he does not have respect for the mandate given to us by Nigerians, he should have respect for the mandate given to his boss that appointed him. With this, the line is drawn between this committee and Federal Inland Revenue Service.”
The committee stressed that the “next appointment, I mean invitation, that is given or communication sent to him and he does not respond, warrant of arrest will be issued and we will call on the President to say that your appointee in Federal Inland Revenue Service does not share your dream and he is not helping your situation so get him out of there or get him where you feel you choose to.
“For NNPC, because the issues are multifaceted, we don’t want to take time here to outline the issues that have got to do with the Federal Inland Revenue Service. NNPC as well has never appeared before this committee.
“The few communications NNPC responded to are neither here nor there for NNPC. As well the line is drawn. The next invitation NNPC does not appear a warrant of arrest will be issued and we will also call on the President to do the needful
“Nigerian Customs Service ; from the Auditor General’s report there are billions to be accounted for. All efforts to get Nigerian Customs Service to the table to know how this happened, what is the way forward- we are still where we were from the day before yesterday to now. No change.
“Central Bank of Nigeria – I had a course on one of the issues that have got to do with the Central Bank of Nigeria. I had to take it on the floor of the Senate. It is important for Nigerians to know under the so-called Ways and Means what happened under Ways and Means, the central bank of Nigeria debited the borrower and credited the borrower.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria debited the Consolidated Revenue Funds account and credited Treasury Single Account which amounted to over 30 trillion naira, and it was securitized with the DMO, Debt Management Office.
Communications or correspondences had happened between this committee, Central Bank, Office of the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Office of the Attorney General and the Accountant General of the Federation. In fact, stakeholders of the finance sector came together and wrote to CBN that CBN has to conform to all the words of the letter.”
He queried the Apex bank for multiple charges against the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) which he disclosed has amounted to over 650 billion naira.
While pointing out that the National Assembly would use all the instruments and instrumentality of governance provided for by the constitution to extract respect of its mandate by public officers, he maintained that the committee was not focused on antagonizing or disrespecting invited agencies.
