Senate threatens to report CBN, FIRS, others to Tinubu over non-compliance

…adjourns plenary to honour Onanuga, late Ogun Reps member

The Senate has warned that it will escalate the persistent refusal of key revenue-generating agencies to appear before its Committee to President Bola Tinubu if they continue to ignore legislative summons.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Aliyu Wadada, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, expressed outrage over the non-compliance of agencies such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigeria Customs Service, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in responding to financial queries raised by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAGF).

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He further threatened issuance of warrant of arrests against Kayode Egbetokun, Inspector-General of Police; Chief Executive Officers of Federal Inland Revenue Service ( FIRS), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited ( NNPCL), the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN ) and others, for perpetual refusal to honour its invitations for appearance before it.

He specifically alleged that Zacch Adedeji, Chairman of FIRS, had ignored eight different invitations sent to him and even refused to respond to several communications forwarded to him.

Other agencies of Government mentioned to have persistently refused to honour invitations of the Committee were the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA) , Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission ( NUPRC), Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited that according to him, ignored invitations of the Committee for Nine consecutive times.

He said, “If the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinibu, will set aside his busy responsibilities to come to the National Assembly to present budget, I wonder how any appointee will think and feel that he is above the law or he is too busy.

” Whoever invitation is extended to and he or she refuses to appear before this all important committee, warrant of arrest will be issued and we will call on the president to disengage that person because the person does not share in the dreams of Mr. President for making Nigeria a better place.”

He added, “From the inception of this committee to date, more than eight invitations have been extended to the chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service who has intentionally refused to appear before this committee and also hasn’t been responding to communications at all from this Committee.

“From this moment, the line is drawn between this committee and Federal Inland Revenue Service whose Chairman , risks a warrant of arrest if he ignores the next invitation for appearance.

“For NNPCL as well, the line is drawn. The next invitation NNPCL does not honour , would attract warrant of arrest as well as call on President Tinubu to do the needful on the recalcitrant appointee .”

He lamented about the Central Bank of Nigeria “It is important for Nigerians to know, under the so-called Ways and Means. What happened under Ways and Means why Central Bank of Nigeria, debited borrower and credited borrower.

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“Central Bank of Nigeria, debited consolidated revenue funds account and credited treasury single account. Which amounted to over 30 trillion.

“Consolidated revenue funds account is government’s account. And the TSA is also government’s account. And in charging the interest, instead of the interest to be charged to treasury account, they went again ahead to charge the Treasury Account.

“They went again ahead to Treasury account. charge Consolidated Revenue Funds account which now have amounted to over N6 trillion.”

According to him, there was correspondence between the Committee and Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy and the Debt Management Office, DMO because of the faulty document which they were not ready to answer and had been evasive.

Meanwhile the Senate on Tuesday adjourned plenary until Wednesday to honour and mourn Oriyomi Onanuga, who until her death, was the deputy chief whip of the Federal House of Representatives.

Onanuga, popularly known as Ijaya, who represented Ikenne/Sagamu/Remo North Federal Constituency of Ogun State, but passed away on Wednesday, January 15th, after a brief illness, according to a press statement issued by Akin Rotimi, the spokesperson for the House of Representatives.