The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has given the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Niger Delta Development Commission, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, and other agencies a 72-hour ultimatum to appear before it over their failure to honour invitations to respond to audit queries.
The directive came during the committee’s sitting on Monday after officials of the invited agencies stayed away without providing any formal explanation for their absence. Committee chairman, Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo, said the invitations were part of efforts to streamline the panel’soversight workload. He noted that despite the letters and invitations issued, the concerned officials failed to show up.
Committee member Senator Babangida Hussaini criticised the agencies’ absence as disrespectful to the National Assembly, warning that the committee would need to take firm action to stop the trend of agencies disregarding its invitations.
Senator Patrick Ndubueze also called for sanctions against the defaulting agencies, insisting they should not be granted a second opportunity given that no explanations were offered for staying away.
