The Senate has ordered the arrest of immediate past Group Chief Executive Officer ( GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited ( NNPCL), Mele Kyari for refusing to appear before its committee over unaccounted N210trillion from 2017 to 2023.
The Senate Committee on Public Accounts chaired by Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo gave the warrant if arrest following his physical absence from the committee’s sitting thus wednesday.
Meanwhile, the former Chief Financial Officer ( CFO) of NNPCL , Umar Ajiya Isa explained to the committee during investigation on the alleged funds by declaring that no money is missing.
However, Senators Saliu Mustapha and Tony Nwoye as members of the committee, separately informed the Chairman, Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo and members that Kyari should be given another chance to appear before them as he is currently sick in Germany.
Other members of the committee such as Abdul Ningi opposed their suggestion Specifically, Senator Abdul Ningi in opposing this suggestion said verbal excuse should not be accepted but documented evidence of sickness.
This was followed by Senator Victor Umeh who raised motion on issuance of warrant of arrest against Kyari.
In seconding this motion, the Deputy Chairman of the committee, Senator Peter Nwaebonyi said giving Kyari another chance of making voluntary appearance, would be tantamount to wild goose chase.
” This is the 9th time this committee is meeting on the 19 queries raised against NNPCL by the Office of Auditor – General of the Federation three of which were chaired by me,
” Mr Chairman , the time to issue warrant of arrest against Mele Kyari is now because the committee must conclude its assignment and report back to Senate “,
The Committee Chairman, accordingly after putting the motion to voice votes and got affirmation from members declared that : ” Anywhere Mele Kyari is , should be arrested and brought before this committee” .
The alleged unaccounted N210trillion was however kicked against by Ajiya in his submission before the committee saying if such humongous amount was missing, there wouldn’t have been any audited report.
” To be clear: if money had gone missing at NNPC during our tenure, we would not have had the courage to publish audited accounts. For over 40 years, those accounts were either not prepared, not made public, or not even shared with the Auditor-General.”
Ajiya added that the claim that ₦5.8 billion was used to register NNPC Limited was untrue and damaging, tasking the committee to make verification of the claim from the Corporate Affairs Commission and the Federal Inland Revenue Service now Nigeria Revenue Service.
In continuation of the investigation, the committee directed Hajiya and Bala Wunti who served as Chief Upstream Investment Officer during the period under review , to reappear before it in two weeks time.
Cov/ Bashir M
