The House of Representatives ad
hoc Committee investigating the alleged stolen 17 billion dollars oil and
gas sales on Thursday ordered Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin
Emefiele, to appear before it within one week.
The money was allegedly stolen
through undeclared crude oil and liquefied natural gas export.
The committee threatened to
issue a warrant of arrest on the governor if he failed to appear within
the period.
The Chairman of the Committee,
Rep. Abdulrazak Namdas said the international oil companies allegedly
involved in the deal had provided the committee documents required to commence
the investigation.
Namdas expressed concern that
full investigation could not begin because of the failure of CBN to
give the required details.
He alleged that CBN provided
conflicting responses to its inquiry on the matter and as such the governor
must appear in person to clarify issues and provide necessary details needed to
facilitate the probe.
“We have sent two different
letters to the CBN and the bank has provided two conflicting responses to our
inquiry.
“In response to the first
letter, the apex bank pleaded for time due to the volume of documents required
but in response to the second letter, CBN indicated that it has no record of
undeclared crude,” Namdas said.
He expressed disappointment
over Emefiele’s absence without representation at the investigative hearing.
The chairman warned that the
committee would invoke the law against any individual or government
agency delaying the investigation.
“We expected him to be here and
he is not, we are disappointed.
“We will not allow any agency
of government to delay the committee’s work.
“If in the next one week, the
CBN Governor did not appear before this committee, we will not hesitate to
exercise our powers in line with section 88 and 89 of the 1999 constitution.”
According to Namdas, the required
details from the CBN are vital as the investigation cannot commence without
them.
“Most of the international oil
companies have furnished us with the information needed but CBN is very vital
and key to this investigation and we cannot jump the gun,’’ he said.
The assembly set up the
committee in September 2016 to investigate 17 billion dollars allegedly
stolen from undeclared crude oil and liquefied natural gas export between 2011
and 2014.
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