20:09:00
Fun Facts
The Nation
Officials of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) were barred from a House of Representatives ad hoc committee hearing investigating alleged fraud in the remittance of generated non-oil revenue.
The officials of the two agencies were walked out due to the non-appearance of their chief executives.
The NCC was represented at the hearing by some officials led by the Director of Public Affairs, Anthony Ojobo, while the NDDC was represented by Executive Director of Finance, Henry Ogiri.
Other agencies at the public hearing included the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and the Nigerian Communications Satelite (NigComSat)Ltd.
The action of the committee was coming on the heels of a challenge thrown to House committees by the Speaker Yakubu Dogara at a retreat earlier Monday that the House is set to drive the change agenda of the government.
The panel, chaired by Chike Okafor (APC, Imo) said the non-appearance of the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC Prof Umar Garba Dambatta and NDDC Managing Director Bassey Dan-Abia was against the rules of the House.
According to him, engaging officials who cannot take responsibility for the actions of their agencies at the hearing would not serve the purpose of the investigation.
Okafor however said Dambatta and Dan-Abia must appear before the panel to respond to questions relating to their organizations on a date to be announced by the panel.
"We have to engage those that would not set us back because the mandate of the committee is critical to the economic realities on ground in this country.
"With a monolithic economy and the fact that we don't have control of global oil market, with (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) setting its benchmark at $35, while we set ours at $38, the implication is that we are going to have issues with our budget proposal.
"That is why we have to look into non-oil revenue generation and we are looking at the past four years.
"We need to know what has transpired in that period concerning statutory and other sources of funds, interest paid on deposit accounts, banks used by the agencies concerned in terms of kinds of accounts, before Treasury Single Account (TSA), investment portfolios, offshore banks among others requests.
"If we are looking at all of these, we must have officers who can take responsibility for whatever is given to the committee."
The submisions of NTA, FRCN and NigComSat were however taken by the Committee.
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