The Senate on Wednesday gave executives of Glo Mobile and other firms allegedly involved in N30 trillion Federal Government revenue leakage till Thursday to appear before it for defence.
The other companies given the deadline by the Senate Joint Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff and Marine Transport, probing the revenue loss are British American Tobacco Company, CCEC Nigeria Ltd and Dana Group.
Also affected are African Wire and Allied Ltd, Admiral Overseas Nigeria Ltd., Aarti Steel Nigeria Ltd., Gagsel International, Fries Land Capina, Etco Nigeria Ltd, Encounter Ltd, Edic Chemicals and Allied Distributors Ltd, Don Climax Group and De United Foods
Chairman of the committee, Senator Hope Uzodinma, gave the ultimatum at an investigative meeting with some of the firms in Abuja.
Uzodinma said that of the 30 firms invited between Tuesday and Wednesday, only 14 appeared before members of the committee.
“It is only in Nigeria that the Senate will invite an entity for an interactive session, particularly in a case that borders on investigation, financial mismanagement and infractions, and the company will be complacent.
“The companies will not be willing to come or sometimes send junior officers.
“I have directed, and we are working with security agencies, that any company that is invited and has something to explain and refuses to appear, we will issue a warrant for such persons to be arrested.
“We are giving them the final opportunity to appear and if they fail, we will issue a warrant of arrest. In this investigation, we are working with the Nigeria Police.
“This is because we are using their facilities to process some of our data so that the information we will present to the public will be information with high integrity that will not be questioned by anybody.
“We have directed that the firms must come tomorrow, Thursday unfailingly,’’ he said.
The joint committee was mandated by the Senate to carry out holistic investigation into alleged N30 trillion revenue leakages in foreign exchange and the entire import and export value chain between 2006 and 2017.
Comments