The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petition has issued an arrest warrant for the Central Bank Governor (CBN), the Accountant General of the Federation, and 17 others. This happened because they were invited to answer questions about their operations, but they didn’t show up. The committee had invited them four times, but they still didn’t come.
The petitioner, Mr. Fidelis Uzowanem, said that the petition was based on a report by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) from 2021. He said that the report showed that there was fraud happening in the oil and gas industry. Uzowanem gave examples of fraud, like companies getting paid for crude oil even though they didn’t produce any. He also said that NNPCL was using payments to launder money.
The committee has also issued arrest warrants for the CEOs of NAPIMS, Ethiop Eastern Exploration and Production Company Ltd, and Western Africa Exploration and Production. The Inspector General of Police has been told to make sure that the CEOs come to the committee on December 14.
The NEITI report from 2021 shows that there is a lot of money that can be used to fund the 2024 budget. The budget is 27.5 trillion, which is a lot of money. The report shows that there is money that was taken illegally that can be used to pay for the budget.
People who are invited to answer questions from the committee must show up. If they don’t, the committee can issue an arrest warrant. This is because the committee needs to know what’s happening in different industries, like the oil and gas industry. If there is fraud happening, the committee needs to know so they can stop it.
