Reps summon Ministers of Finance, Petroleum, others over comatose refineries

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, Group Managing Director (GMD) Nigeria National Petroleum Company Ltd, Mele Kyari and the Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed Shamsuna have all been summoned by the House of Representatives over the state of the nation’s refineries.

The summoned appointees had failed to honour the invitation of the House of Representatives panel investigating the subject matter for a hearing slated for Thursday.

The Adhoc Committee was mandated to investigate “Status Report on State of Refineries in the country”, but on Thursday publicly criticized the Managing Directors of Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Wari Refineries over their failure to appear before it as well.

Other agencies’ heads that failed to appear are the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emiefele, Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze and several others.

The Committee chaired by Johnson Abiodun Ganiyu (APC, Lagos) and deputized by Ishiaka Ibrahim (APC, Ogun), had requested the invited guests present to introduce themselves and in the process discovered that non of the invited Heads of the agencies was present.

Although, the NNPC, Budget Office of the Federation, and the Accountant General’s Office sent representatives who did not seat well with Members of the investigative panel.

Speaking, the Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Isiaka said the lack of authorization letter from the Heads of agencies to the Committee depicts disrespect for the Parliament.

“Let not everyone leave here with the impression that they are not important. We respect every person no matter your cadre. We are talking about principle, process and protocol here if they were not able to attend whereby such a person needs authorization even if it is a messenger. Are you ready to take responsibility when something goes wrong?

“You can also find yourselves on this side of the divide someday. We believe that you do not have the capacity to address us on this issue,” he stated.

“You can also find yourselves on this side of the divide someday. We believe that you do not have the capacity to address us on this issue,” he stated.