Philip Nyam 
The House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the disposal of public property by the agencies between 2010 and 2022 to unravel the extent of illegal auctioning of public property, non-remittance of revenue realized into Consolidated Revenue Fund’, the acting Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Adewale Adeniyi and managing director of Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Mallam Mohammed Bello-Koko for failing to appear before it on Tuesday.
The two officers were expected to appear before the committee to give details of all public assets sold by their organisations between 2010 and 2022.
Chairman of the committee, Hon. Julius Ihonvbere gave the warning at the resumed investigative hearing in Abuja.
He frowned at the continuous disregard to parliament’s summons by some of the heads of various agencies and parastatals saying, “Particularly the Customs Service and the Nigerian Ports Authority.
“Twice, we have summoned them but they refused to show up here. We know what our powers are and after this hearing, we will be taking the next steps in that direction.
“Like I said at the very first hearing, our goal in the 10th House is to work seamlessly with agencies of government irrespective of what their functions may be. Because at this very time, we need all hands on deck to refocus and reposition this country.
“But since some agencies, particularly the Customs and the NPA have proven recalcitrant, it is now left for this committee and the House of Representatives to demonstrate to them the powers granted us by the Constitution and we will be taking that next step.
“We are not going to appeal to them again, we are not going to call them, we are not going to write to them; they would hear from the appropriate sections of the House of Representatives”.
The House leader who was livid with anger said “This kind of political rascality and irresponsibility must stop! No chief executive is above the law, we are the lawmakers and when we summon an Agency here, that agency must show up. Because we have the powers to summon anyone in this country by powers that are guaranteed constitutionally and we think this kind of lackadaisical and almost infantile behaviour at this stage, we have to check it and stop it”.
He explained that “We didn’t just get up and set up this thing, we didn’t constitute ourselves like what we used to call an illegal checkpoint. This is not an illegal ad-hoc committee, it is sanctioned by the entire House following a motion that was set up on the illegal sales of government property by certain Agencies and I’m happy that many of them have turned up and provided documents and clarified issues and we didn’t have any problems,” he noted.
Meanwhile, the Director General/CEO of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Mallam Bashir Jimoh, is expected to appear before the Ad-hoc Committee on Wednesday to give further details on the sales of 82 vehicles at a paltry sum of N5.8 million over the past 12 years as presented by the Executive Director Finance and Admin, Hon. Chudi Offodile.
In line with the resolution passed by the Ad-hoc Committee, Jimoh is expected to present a list of all the Auctioneers as well as beneficiaries of the vehicles, the original cost of vehicles and invoices, letter of contract awards for auctioning of the assets to the auctioneers; relevant approvals obtained from Federal Ministry of Works & Housing as well as Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).
It will be recalled that the NIMASA Executive Director of Finance & Admin, Mr. Chudi Offodile who spoke on behalf of the Agency, confirmed that all 82 vehicles were sold at N5.8 million.
