House of Reps threatens to arrest ex-Etisalat chief Hakeem Belo-Osagie for refusing to honour invitations

The House of Representatives ad-hoc panel has threatened to issue an arrest warrant against Chairman of the defunct Etisalat Nigeria, Hakeem Belo-Osagie, and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Airtel Nigeria, for failing to appear before it to answer charges relating to their operations.

The panel chairman, Ahmed Abu, stated this in Abuja, on Thursday, after some service providers and vendors yesterday, some stakeholders refused to turn up.

Abu said the panel had invited Bello-Osagie and the 9Mobile CEO on several occasions to answer questions on alleged tax evasion by the then Etisalat and Airtel but that they refused to honour the invitations.

He said that the attitude of the duo was unacceptable and that if they fail to appear on a yet-to-be announced date, an arrest warrant would be issued against them.

The committee chairman, who also berated the officials of 9Mobile for the absence of their CEO, said the panel would invoke relevant constitutional provisions in dealing with the organisations involved.