By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Nigeria’s House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating non-remittance to the National Housing Fund and utilisation of funds from 2011 to date has threatened the arrest of Central Bank of Nigeria acting governor, Folashidun Shonubi for failing to honour an invitation extended to him.
The committee on Thursday equally ordered the director, banking supervision, Mr. Haruna Mustapha, who represented the CBN governor to go back.
The parliament also gave the Central Bank acting governor, along with the Accountant General of the Federation, Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein and banks alleged to have defaulted in remittance till next week Thursday to appear with all the required information.
Chairman of the ad hoc committee, Musa Bagos, at the Thursday’s sitting of the committee frowned at the attitude of government appointees who would always give excuses whenever they were invited to appear before the parliament.
The committee despite its readiness to give fair hearing to every stakeholder will not hesitate to invoke the provisions of the law against anyone that attempts to undermine its authority or sabotage the investigation, Bagos warned.
“We will not tolerate a situation whereby CEOs shy away from coming up to give evidence. Each time all the CEOs claim they have travelled abroad.
“We insist on having the Accountant General of the Federation and the acting governor of the CBN appear before this committee unfailingly next Thursday at 11am. We are not going to entertain their representatives, he warned”
The committee equally rejected taking any evidence from the director of IPPIS, Mr. Emma Deko, who represented the Accountant General of the Federation, insisting that she must appear in person.
Bagos said, “Today, we invited all the banks but only UBA, Zenith, Heritage and Sterling Bank. We’ll not take it lightly with the absentee banks any longer. They must appear next Thursday”
