House c’ttee accuses agencies of undermining NNPC probe

Henry Omunu, Abuja

The House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the non-remittance of funds by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) into the federation account has accused some agencies of undermining the committee’s investigation.

Chairman of the committee, Rep. Chukwuka Onyema, made the allegation at Thursday’s plenary presided over by Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

He expressed concern that invited agencies deliberately refused to honour the committee’s summons, saying that they have continued to undermine the committee’s effort at unravelling the mystery surrounding the non-remittance of funds by the NNPC into the federal purse.

According to him, in the course of the committee’s investigation, it invited agencies that have direct and ancillary roles in the process of revenue collection, remittance and audit of all collected federal revenues.

“The agencies deliberately refused to appear before the committee and when attempts were made to invoke legislative sanctions, the agencies adopted delay tactics to frustrate and blackmail the committee,” he revealed.

Rep. Onyema, who represents Ogbaru Federal Constituency of Anambra state, said requests for documents were also not honoured by the agencies, adding that further attempts by the committee to obtain sensitive information through other agencies were blocked or sabotaged.

“The deliberate attempts to undermine the legislative arm of government, particularly, the House of Representatives has directly and indirectly undermined the constitutional principle of separation of powers and checks and balances,” he said.

The House deputy minority leader stressed that if urgent steps were not taken to probe the allegation that necessitated the constitution of the ad hoc committee, “it may lead to serious abuse and deliberate constitutional breaches.”

When Speaker Dogara, put the motion to a voice vote, it was unanimously adopted by House members and the ad hoc committee’s mandate was extended by two weeks.

It would be recalled that the House constituted the ad hoc committee on July 11, 2018 to investigate the alleged non-remittance of funds into the federation account by the NNPC from Jan. 2018 to date.