Subsidy probe!

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*Ministers, other government officials shun Reps investigative panel

*Gbajabiamila fumes, orders panel to summon Silva, Emefiele, Kyari, Zainab Ahmed, others

*Says absence of Sylva, Zainab Ahmed, Emefiele, Kyari regrettable

*Declares absence of invited agencies as an attempt to sabotage committee’s efforts

By Disun Amosun

First sitting of an ad hoc committee set up by the House of Representatives to determine the volume of fuel consumed daily in Nigeria yesterday suffered a setback as major stakeholders in the oil industry especially the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Silva, Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari among others were absent.

Angered by the action of the stakeholders, the Speaker, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila condemned in its totality, the absence of those expected to appear before the investigative panel and directed the committee to summon them to appear before it at a later date failure to which they would be sanctioned.

He was particularly angry with the non-appearance of the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva; Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele and the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Melee Kyari as well as the Managing Director of Petroleum Pipeline Marketing Company, Isiaku Abdullahi, among others.

Consequently, the committee, chaired by Abdulkadir Abdullahi, summoned the GMD of the NNPC; MD of the PPMC; Accountant-General of the Federation; the CBN Governor; Minister of State and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources; Minister of Finance and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance.

The Speaker, who was represented by the Deputy Majority Leader, Peter Akpatason, was displeased by the fact that most of the critical stakeholders were absent from the hearing while those sent to represent a few of them were officials whose cadres were lower than those required to answer questions on behalf of their organisations.

He said that any excuse given to the committee by an invited agency is not acceptable considering the magnitude of revenue wastage and sufferings of Nigerians as a result of the acute scarcity of petroleum products.

“The absence of these invited agencies Chief Executive Officers is an attempt to sabotage the efforts of the Ad-hoc Committee on this investigation and if there is any need to sanction any organisation that is not here, the Chairman should make it known to the House”, he declared.

Following this observation, a member of the probe panel, Hon Aniekan Umana (Akwa-Ibom PDP) immediately moved a motion that the investigative hearing be suspended until the invited officials could be held responsible for their presentations to the committee.

The motion was seconded by Hon. Uchechuwkwu Nnam Obi (Rivers, PDP) who said that the House Ad-hoc Committee should stand down the hearing pending the appearance of major stakeholders with the capacity to correct the situation.

Among other stakeholders that honoured the committee’s are Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers NUPENG.

In his speech, the Chairman of the ad-hoc Committee, Hon. Sa’ad Abdulkadir noted that the poor responses by those invited notwithstanding the mandate given it will be pursued to its logical conclusion.

He added that the Committee will not restrict its findings to the records of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC Limited but would liaise with experts, transport workers and other stakeholders to determine the actual volume of petroleum products consumed daily in Nigeria.