EditorMinister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has told the House of Representatives of his readiness to provide relevant information on the alleged illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil to global destinations from 2014 to date, amounting to over $2.4bn.
Malami made this know to the House’ Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate Alleged Loss of Over $2.4 Billion in Revenue from Illegal Sale of 48 Million Barrels of Crude Oil Export in 2015 Including All Crude Oil Exports and Sales by Nigeria from 2014 Till Date.
Chairman of the committee, Mark Gbillah, at the continued hearing of the panel in Abuja on Thursday, read out Malami’s communication to the lawmakers.
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Gbillah, however, decried that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, had yet to respond to the committee.
The committee had on Wednesday threatened to serve the ministers with summons over their failure to answer queries over alleged illegal sale of crude oil to China and utilisation of funds recovered through whistle-blowers without National Assembly appropriation.
Top officials of the Federal Government had failed to appear before the committee at its last sitting on April 11, 2023.
The committee was to grill ministers and other heads of ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government as well as oil companies and banks. However, only the National Intelligence Agency and the Code of Conduct Bureau sent representatives on the government side.
Consequently, the committee reinvited Ahmed, Malami; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, among others.
Chairman of the committee, Mark Gbillah, in his ruling at the end of the day’s sitting, had noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation had indicted several officials and agencies in their memoranda to the panel.
Gbillah noted that the committee is probing into the 48 million barrels of crude oil allegedly sold in China, crude oil exports in general from Nigeria for the period under review and the whistle-blower revelations and recoveries “which the Federal Government has publicly declared they had made recoveries from.”
However, the FG officials failed to show up at the hearing again on Wednesday.
Disclosing the new development on Thursday, Gbillah acknowledged receipt of the communication from Malami.
The lawmaker said, “Today we are in receipt of a letter from the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice, who is averring his determination to respect the doctrine of separation of powers and to support our extant laws. And he has indicated the fact that they are trying to put together the comprehensive response that we have raised.
“While we appreciate the attorney-general’s response, we would like to indicate that it came a lot later than we expected and it came without the response that we referred to. So, we will appreciate if the attorney-general and honourable minister provides these response and to also appear before the committee next Thursday. So, let us give him the window to appear before the committee.”
The chairman added, “Unfortunately, the Honourable Minister of Finance has still been evasive. The committee has not received any submission or response from the Honourable Minister of Finance.
“The Accountant General (of the Federation) sent a response and has not responded to our follow-up because we asked further questions to what he provided us information about.
“But we want to call on the Honourable Minister of Finance, like the attorney-general, to show regards and respect for the separation of powers as enshrined in our Constitution, and respond promptly to the request of the committee so that we can get to the bottom of our investigation.
“Like I already said, we are giving her the benefits of the doubt. We are not unmindful of the other powers we have and we are afraid to exert them, and we will do so if the leeway we have provided is still neglected and not recognised by the Honourable Minister of Finance.”
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