The Senate Committee on Public Account,has threatened to arrest officials of Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF)over their failure to appear for investigative hearing.
The chairman of the committee, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, has directed the committee’s secretariat to write the agencies involved to appear latest next Tuesday else the Senate will invoke relevant sections of the constitution against the agencies.
He noted that NSTIF has over 50 queries to respond to, adding it is obvious that the agency is running away from Investigation.
He said: “We have just directed the Secretariat of the Committee to write to the erring Ministries, Agencies and Departments of government for the last time, asking them to appear before us as from next week.We are going to invoke Section 89 of the constitution, which is bench warrant of arrest to be issued on them to compel them to appear.
“Why will the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund come to tell us that they have a new management? For how long do they want the management to be in place before they can appear? They know that government is a continuun? NSTIF has over 50 queries. It is obvious that they are running away, they don’t want to come and give account. Today, the Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency, and the Rural Electrification Agency and NSITF are all supposed to be here, bringing the total number of errant agencies to 56.
