The Senate Committee walked out representative of the NNPCL boss, insisting heads of agencies must appear before it.
The Senate has threatened to dismiss senior officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, (NNPCL), its subsidiaries, and other relevant agencies of government connected to the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM).
The threat was issued by the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Isah Jibrin (APC, Kogi East), on Wednesday, following the absence of the Chief Executive Officers of the NNPCL, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and their subsidiaries.
The ad hoc Committee was constituted to investigate contracts for the rehabilitation of the nation’s four refineries.
Having confirmed the absence of the CEO of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari, as well as other executives who failed to show up before them, the lawmakers asked their delegates to exit the meeting room.
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Jibrin said: ”We can not start this investigative hearing without the heads of agencies. Let them go to report to their principals that we have declined to listen to them if they fail to turn up we know what to do.”
Senator Sumaila Kawu (NNPP, Kano) noted that the Senate was determined to get to the root of public funds spent on the moribund refineries.
He said: “We are working according to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We are not in the Senate because of our names but because of the constitution; We are practicing constitutional representation and it is very clear.
“So much money has been spent on the turnaround maintenance of the four refineries. From 2012 till date over N12tr has been spent based on our records. We also have over $592m, 4.8m Euros, and 3.4m pounds spent between 2010 till date on the Turn Around Maintenance yet none of these refineries is working.
“More worrisome is the fact that between 2010 and 2020 the sum of N4.8tr was said to have been spent on operational expenses. How do you incur operational expenses with the purchase of raw materials and others on moribund facilities, how do you come about the operational expenses?
“We need to know, Nigerians want to know. They want solutions to all these leakages,“ he stated.
