The House of Representatives has threatened to sanction the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emiefele, Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali-Baba, director-general, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA), Bashir Jamoh; National Security Adviser, Mohammed Mongunu over failure to honour parliamentary invitation.
The House ad-hoc committee investigating the management of recovered loots by government agencies which made the threat at its resumed sitting on Monday also gave heads of the agencies a 72-hour ultimatum to appear before it or risk the wrath of the law.
Chairman of the committee, Adejoro Adeogun (APC, Ondo) expressed disappointment over the non-appearance of heads of various invited agencies of government who sent representatives without a formal or official communication to the committee.
“You are indirectly undermining the entire parliament, not just the House of Representatives but the entire institution”. You said you are representing CBN do you have a letter to that effect, if no then you are impersonating.
“You are a government official aren’t you? Is that the procedure, that someone just walks into an event and says he is representing you without a formal letter of introduction because as far as we are concerned, you are an imposter. I will therefore yield the floor to my colleagues in case they have anything to say” he stated.
A member of the committee, Isiaka Ibrahim (APC, Ogun) while moving the motion to summon the agencies, decried the lack of respect accorded the parliament by various Heads of government bodies despite being a creation of the parliament.
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“These agencies of government that are products of the National Assembly having been established by law, are the same ones that undermine the same process that gave birth to them. Apart from being established by the law passed by the National Assembly, the heads are the ones sent to the Senate for confirmation. I am worried that when they are invited and the National Assembly is taken for granted like this.
“This calls for serious concern. If it requires bringing it up on the floor of the House, we should do so and if possible, we should shut down the National Assembly. If agencies of government, by the provisions of section 88 and 89, are not going to respect us, then we have no reasons to be here. You keep solving one problem here and there and things keep going bad. This is an interactive session to find solutions to our problems.
“I think that if those invited are not here and they refused to send letters, we appeal to them to ensure that they appear latest by Thursday. If they fail, the necessary provisions of the constitution should be invoked to make sure everything goes normal”, he said.
The motion was adopted by the committee and the chairman in his ruling gave the agencies a period not exceeding this Thursday to appear before the committee or face sanctions, in line with sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 constitution.
“This committee has passed a motion that the governor of CBN, Inspector General of Police, the National Security Adviser and the DG of NIMASA have until Thursday to appear before this committee. Otherwise, the parliament will invoke its powers to deal with them according to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“I am appalled by the actions of the agencies because it is indirectly insulting the National Assembly, not my person and I need you to communicate that to the heads of the agencies that it is not the chairman of the committee that you are being impolite to. I don’t want to use the word insult or rude. Your indirect action is undermining the entire parliament, not just the House of Representatives, but the entire institution of the National Assembly, and that will not be taken by this parliament”, he noted.
