Reps C’ttee Invites Emefiele, Yadam, Oke Over NIA’s $43m
The House of Representatives Committee on Public Safety, National Security and Intelligence, Tuesday, invited the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele; suspended Director-General of Nigerian Intelligence Agency, NIA, Ayo Oke, and acting Director-General of the agency, Arab Yadam, over the $43,449,947, £27,800 and N23,218,000 recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in an Ikoyi residence, in Lagos.
Aminu Sani Jaji (APC, Zamfara), who disclosed this while fielding questions from journalists, said his committee would submit its reports as soon as salient issues were clarified with the invited persons.
Jaji also noted that National Security Intelligence Act did not deter the NIA chiefs from appearing before the committee.
He, however, added that the House would issue a summon should they fail to honour the committee’s invitation.
He said: “We are getting somewhere on the matter. On Wednesday or Thursday next week, we are inviting the suspended DG of NIA, the acting D-G and the CBN governor, to clarify some issues.
“From there, we can come-up with a report, we want to produce a report that even a man on the street can understand, and I can assure you that it is 95 per cent ready.”
According to him, the discovery has prompted his committee to intensify its oversight functions.
“Going by the circumstances with which the money was given to NIA by the previous administration, the question is what have they done with it in 2015, 2016.
‘This is where we realised that we need to intensity our oversight, so that we can enhance transparency,” he stated.
The Zamfara lawmaker insisted that the National Security Intelligence Act would not shield government officials from appearing before the parliament, noting that the invited persons must appear in accordance with section 88 and 89 of the constitution.
“The Act does not stop them from appearing before the committee, the issue is that when they appear, certain questions cannot be discussed except in a closed door session.”