By Chioma Iruke
Nigeria’s House of Representatives on Monday expressed displeasure with various government agencies over their refusal to appear before it to answer questions pertaining to loot.
The Legislative arm of government had earlier summoned some federal agencies to appear before it over recovered looted funds from 2002 to 2020.
The summon was made by the House Committee on the Assessment of the Status of all Recovered Loots, Moveable and Immovable Assets from 2002 to 2020 by Agencies of the Federal Government for Effective and Efficient Management and Utilisation.
The Committee has now issued another summon, after the government departments failed to show up on the stipulated date.
The summon was sequel to a unanimous adoption of a motion by Rep. Ibrahim Isiaka (APC-Ogun) at an investigative hearing organised by the committee on Monday in Abuja.
The committee summoned the Inspector-General of Police, National Security Adviser, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) the Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Managing Director, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA)
Moving the motion, Mr Isiaka said he is worried that agencies of government that are products of the National Assembly’s law are turning against the same process that established them.
He said some of the heads of the agencies who appeared before the Senate for confirmation, now take the parliament for granted.
“I want appeal that this should not end here, if it amounts raising it on the floor of the house; we should shut down the National Assembly by sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution if the agencies of the government will not respect us then we do not need to be here; if we are to be tied not to perform our function, we do not need to be here.
“We keep solving one problem here and another one there and simply causing an appearance before the committee which is for interactive sections to find solutions to some issues and then they don’t.
“This is what builds up to cause most of the problems we have in this country; we are not here to waste our time, we have other things to do but because we cannot compromise our legislative duties, that is why we are here.
“I want to appeal that we give another 72 hours to all the agencies invited to please ensure they cause an appearance before this committee on Thursday.
“If they fail, the necessary sections of the Constitution should be invoked to ensure that they appear before this committee,” he said.
Earlier, the Chairman of the committee, Rep. Adeogun Adejoro (APC-Ondo) said that the committee had earlier invited the officials to appear for the investigative hearing.
He said that the officials failed to appear before the committee without any prior official communication to notify the committee of their absence or to inform the committee that they would send representatives.
“I am appalled at the reactions of the agencies, I think that you are indirectly insulting the House of Representatives and not my person as chairman; you are indirectly undermining the entire institution of the National Assembly and that will not be taken by this parliament.
“This committee has passed a motion that the CBN Governor, the IG of Police, the NSA and the D-G NIMSA to appear before this committee on Thursday.
“Otherwise, the House of Reps will invoke its powers to deal with them according to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.
