Babatunji Wusu –
Olayemi Cardoso, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions because he declined to appear before the committee to respond to inquiries regarding the oil industry.
Oluwatoyin Madein, the Federation’s accountant general, and seventeen other people were also ordered to be arrested by the panel.
The leaders of Western Africa Exploration and Production, Ethiopian Eastern Exploration and Production Company Ltd., and National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) are among the 17 people who have been arrested.
Heads of First Exploration & Production Ltd., Heirs Holdings Oil, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (Mpnu), First E&P Oml 8385 Jv, Alteo Eastern E&P Co. Ltd., and The Md are among the others.
The companies Total Exploration & Producing Nig (TEPN), Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC), Pan Ocean Oil Nig, Ltd., Newcross E&P Ltd., Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), and Frontier Oil Ltd. are also included.
The committee’s investigation hearing resulted in a resolution to review a petition submitted on Tuesday by a Fidelis Uzowanem.
Cardoso and others, according to House Committee Chairman Hon. Michael Etaba (APC, Cross River), have declined to accept the invitation from the legislative panel.
As a result, Fred Agbedi (PDP, Bayelsa), a committee member, moved to issue an arrest warrant for the negligent authorities.
Agbedi stated that the individuals in question ought to be forced to come before the committee on December 14.
The committee approved the proposal and gave Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun the order to carry out the warrant’s execution.
Etaba later clarified that the warrant’s purpose was to force the parties in question to appear before the committee in order to address the concerns brought up in the petition.
The petitioner, Uzowanem, has previously clarified that the petition pertained to the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) report for the year 2021.
He said that his organization had uncovered numerous violations carried out by participants in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry in collusion with public servants.
“We accepted the challenge to look into the report and found that it is only a compilation of fraudulent activities that have been occurring in the oil and gas sector, as reported by NEITI.
“It started in 2016 because we have been keeping track of it and petitioned this committee to look at what transpired.
The petitioner claimed that the N27.5 trillion projected budget for 2024 could be assuredly paid from the recoverable amount found in the NEITI report.
