Abuja: The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has summoned Bayo Ojulari, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), to appear before it on July 10.
The committee threatened that it might be compelled to issue an arrest warrant if Ojulari failed to appear before it on the said date.
The committee, chaired by Sen. Ahmed Wadada, issued the directive during a brief session in Abuja after officials of the NNPCL shunned its invitation.
The committee requires their presence to respond to queries raised last week regarding a staggering N210 trillion allegedly unaccounted for by the company between 2017 and 2023, as detailed in an audit report.
Rather than appear, the NNPCL wrote a letter signed by Adedapo Segun on behalf of the GCEO, which the committee clerk, Sani Abdullahi, read.
The clerk requested an additional two months to prepare a detailed response.
Wadada strongly rejected the request and condemned the absence of NNPCL officials, saying it demonstrated a disregard for the committee’s summons.
“We expected representatives from the NNPCL to be before us today to answer questions thrown at them last week on issues or queries raised in the audit reports before us.
“Their absence is unacceptable, and as a result, this committee is giving the relevant officials from NNPCL ten working days from today, which ends on July 10.
“This committee was not expecting any documents from NNPCL today but answers to the eleven questions thrown at its representatives last week.
“Therefore, the GCEO of NNPCL must appear before us on July 10 for the expected answers.”
He added that the failure to appear on the scheduled date would leave the committee with no choice but to invoke and assert all its constitutional powers to compel the GCEO’s appearance.
Wadada also declared that the committee may adopt audit queries against other defaulting agencies.
