The Nigerian House of Representatives has expressed its disappointment over the lack of appearance of government agencies and consortiums at an Investigative Hearing on Actual Daily Consumption of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, in Nigeria.
The Chairman of the House of Representatives AD HOC Committee on the Volume of Fuel Consumed Daily in Nigeria, Rep. Abdulkadir Sa’ad Abdullahi, who expressed the displeasure, said that it was unfair for agencies not to respond to the call of the committee.
While reading the riot act to defaulting agencies, the chairman said that the wrought of the House will fall on any agency that fails to appear before the committee.
Rep. Abdullahi noted that determining fuel consumption requires multi-agency collaboration.
“I want to express my disappointment in some of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs we have, because this is a very important responsibility as far as the House of Representatives is concerned. We are all elected from our various constituencies, representing various states and local governments and like we said earlier the issue of consumption of petroleum products especially PMS is a very sensitive issue in this country and it has far reaching implications on the physical federalism of this country. So we expect government agencies to cooperate with us to give us information, to give us data that we asked so that we synthesis all this and make analysis and come up with a fair view and position of the volume consumed in the country which will invariably give a light as to the amount of money needed to subsidise this product. But unfortunately most of the key players in the industry have been avoiding appearing before this committee” he said.
He warned the committee and indeed the House of Representatives will leave no stone unturned and that there is no agency that is above the law.
“Let them understand that they can only delay their appearance before this committee but they cannot escape the tentacles of this committee and the House of Representatives as far as this investigation is concerned. So it is better for them to appear before this committee and lay their submissions and give us the data that is required for the exercise, for the mandate of this committee to be actualised. I want to use this medium to draw the attention that we expect them to be civil organisations of the government and cooperate in this very important legislative responsibility”he warned.
The chairman urged the clerk to write to all the governmental agencies including the ones that sent in letters asking for extension, to get a date for them preferably the second week of August and fix a date for another hearing and give them a last warning and that failure to appear will attract unpalatable consequences from the Committee and the House.
In their submissions, representatives of the Nigerian Navy, Road Safety, and North West Petroleum, asked for an extension of time to get the information needed by the Committee.
Emmanuel Ukoh
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