For failing to appear three times
in a row at the ongoing investigation of allegations of violation of public
trust by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the House of
Representatives Committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness has threatened
to issue an arrest warrant against the Director General of NEMA, Mustapha
Maihaja.
Speaking during the public
hearing on Thursday, chairman of the committee, Ali Isa (PDP, Gombe) said Mr
Maihaja had refused to honor the invitations of the committee three consecutive
times.
He said Mr Maihaja was fond of
sending notices of his absence from the hearing ”either 30 minutes before the
meeting commences or when it has already commenced.”
Earlier during the hearing, the
committee directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Office of the Accountant
General of the Federation, Ministry of Finance and other relevant parties to
provide all transaction details of N5.6 billion funds released to four
companies in relation to the Emergency Food Programme in the North-east.
The committee chairman revealed
that the documents will be used to guide the panel to ”uncover the mystery
surrounding the release of funds and to establish whether it was given to the
companies as a loan or under whatever condition”.
The decision to ask for the
documents arose when beneficiaries of the contract to mop up grains, which were
said to have been distributed in the North-east, complained.
The Office of the Accountant
General of the Federation has revealed that they (firms) were selected for the
job without asking for a loan to finance it from the CBN, while the bank, on
the other hand, insisted that the N5.6 billion was a loan.
The committee has given Mr
Maihaja an extra grace to appear before it on May 31 or face arrest.
The panel is investigating the
release of N5.9 billion Food Intervention in the North-east, N3.1 billion Food
Intervention in the same region, release of N1.6 billion for Libyan returnees,
release of N1.6 billion Flood Intervention for 16 states and donation of 6,779
Metric Tons of rice by the Chinese Government.
Various persons and groups have
appeared and testified before the committee in the past one month.
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