For failure to appear for an investigative hearing, the Senate on Tuesday threatened to issue warrant of arrest on officials of Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) and 54 others government agencies.
Chairman of the Senate public account committee, Matthew Urhoghide issued the threat to erring agencies and directed the committee secretariat to write the agencies involved to appear next week Tuesday or the Senate will invoke sections of the constitution against the agencies.
While raising the issue of NSITF, Urhoghide said that the agency has over 50 queries to respond, adding that it was obvious that the agency was running away from investigation.
He said, “We have just directed the secretariat of the committee to write to the erring ministries, agencies and departments of government for the last time, asking them to appear before us as from next week.
“We are going to invoke section 89 of the constitution, which is a bench warrant of arrest to be issued on them to compel them to appear.
“Why will the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund come to tell us that they have a new management? For how long do they want the management to be in place before they can appear? They know that government is a continuum. NSTIF has over 50 queries. It is obvious that they are running away; they don’t want to come and give account.
“Today, the Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency, and the Rural Electrification Agency and NSITF are all supposed to be here, bringing the total number of errant agencies to 56.
“We are giving them till next week Tuesday to appear or we issue a warrant of arrest on them to appear. They came for appropriation and they don’t want to account for the money they collected.”
