Showdown in National Assembly as Reps Summon Emefiele and Kachikwu...Find Out Why

Posted by Odinaka on Fri 24th Mar, 2017 - tori.ng

The House of Representatives has summoned the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria and the Minister of State for Petroleum to appear before it.

House of Reps speaker, Yakubu Dogara

The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, have been summoned by the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on the Review of Petroleum Products Pricing.

According to Daily Sun, the federal government officials are to appear before the lawmakers next Monday over the alleged diversion of millions of dollars meant for the importation of premium motor spirit (PMS).

Also expected to appear before the committee are Chief of Naval Staff, Ibok-Ete Ekwe, Chief Executive Officers of some deposit banks who were involved in the allocation of forex to the oil marketers.

This is as the committee directed the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to arreste the managing director of HAR Petroleum Resources Ltd, Andrew Alagu.

While making his observation during its investigative hearing yesterday, Chairman of the committee, Raphael Nnanna-Igbokwe, declared Alagu wanted, alleging that his company fraudulently sourced and received foreign exchange to the tune of $26 million from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) using the importation of fuel into the country as a front.

Igbokwe expressed displeasure over the denial by the company via a letter to the committee, that it did not engage in the importation of fuel and therefore didn’t source and receive forex from the CBN.

HAR Petroleum representative at the hearing, Jefferson Ogunma, who said his boss, Andrew Alagu, had travelled overseas on an official assignment and insisted that his company only handled logistics on behalf of Total Nigeria Plc.

But his explanation was rejected by Igbokwe who disclosed that investigations by the committee showed that the company received forex to import fuel.

“We have it on good authority that in 2014, your company applied and got over $11 million, and in 2015, it got another forex over $14 million from Zenith Bank for the importation of petroleum products into this country and you now sit here and deny ever engaging in product importation or any of such transaction with the NNPC retail outfits? Where did the $26 million you took in forex from the bank, according to CBN records, go to?,” he asked.

The committee re-stated its order that the Inspector General of Police and the Comptroller General of Immigration immediately determine the whereabouts of the company’s Managing Director and produce him on March 27, unfailingly for questioning.