The House of representatives has threatened the arrest of Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
The ad hoc Committee is probing the alleged sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil amounting to over $2.4 billion and crude oil export to global destinations from 2014 to date.
This was after both government officials again failed to appear before the committee at its resumed sitting.
The ad hoc committee is not happy about the continued failure of key government officials to appeal before it to assist in the discharge of its tasks.
At Wednesday’s sitting, the Committee expressed frustration at the absence, yet again, of figures critical to its assignment
The lawmakers want the Justice Minister to answer to alleged approval of payment of $200 million to two private firms as consultancy services on whistle blowers’ recoveries.
The committee is also demanding the appearance of the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed to explain her role in the said approvals and payment without providing details of actual recoveries from whistle blowers.
The committee chairman gave the ruling at the resumed hearing of the investigation.
He accused both ministers of being uncooperative with the panel despite several letters of invitation.
The Upstream Regulatory Commission was one of the agencies which honoured the Committee’s invitation.
It insists taking out the quantity of crude oil under probe, in a clandestine manner, is just not possible
The lawmakers are hoping that the minister of finance, the attorney general of the federation and others that have been invited over time would deem it fit to respect the institution and not dare it to instigate their arrest.
