Reps summon Emefiele, FIRS boss Nami over subsidy payment
The House of Representatives has again summoned Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele and the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Nami, over issues surrounding the payment of subsidy on petroleum products in the last 10 years.
The House ad hoc committee investigating oil subsidy payments between 2013 and 2022 issued the summons, following the failure of Emefiele and Nami to appear before it at the National Assembly yesterday in Abuja.
The committee turned back a Deputy Director with the CBN, Hussein Kagara, who was to represent Emefiele, and the Special Assistant to the FIRS Chairman, Gabriel Ogunjemiluri.
A member of the committee, Mark Gbillah, who moved a motion to summon the two government functionaries, said the absence of Emefiele and Nami showed they were less concerned about a serious national issue, like fuel subsidy, which costs the country N6.7 trillion every year.
Gbillah said: “The sum of N6.7 trillion in less than a year is being expended on subsidy. We could expect that the CBN governor would come here personally to address such an issue, and the FIRS chairman as well. I guess they believe this issue is not important enough for them to be here.
“So, Mr. Chairman, in my own opinion, I don’t think we should bother hearing any of the representatives of these two agencies that are here today.
“We would like the CBN governor and FIRS chairman to be here in person before this honourable committee of the House to address this critical issue.”
Another member of the committee, Abdul Ganiyu-Olododo (APC, Kwara) said: “How can a chairman of an organisation, like the FIRS, send an assistant, a special assistant for that matter? It is an insult to this institution, number one, and the sensibility of Nigerians, if you consider the seriousness of this assignment, fuel subsidy that involves N6.7 trillion. No! No! It is an insult.
Mr. Chairman, I want to suggest that the special assistant should go back and inform the chairman (of FIRS) that a letter was written to them, requesting the chairman to appear before this honourable committee with documents.”
Addressing the lawmakers, Kagara told lawmakers that he could only answer questions on technical issues of subsidy payments, when Ibrahim Aliyu sought his competence on the subject matter of the probe.
The CBN official also said the apex bank could not print the documents requested by the committee because they were too voluminous.
According to him, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has 200 accounts domiciled with the apex bank.
“If all the questions that you are going to ask are related to technical matters that concern subsidy payments, I will be able to provide answers here. But if they are outside the technical aspects of the subsidy transaction, then I will not be able to respond,” Kagara said.
Committee Chairman Ibrahim Aliyu said: “There are areas that you cannot answer. You see: this is the fundamental reason why the senior members of the management are supposed to appear before the committee.
“We are left with no alternative than to follow the procedure of the House. Where you cannot provide hardcopies (requested documents), provide soft copies.
“We will expect you on August 18. The motion passed: the FIRS chairman is to appear before this committee on August 18, 2022.”
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