Malami, others fail to appear before reps over illegal crude sale

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On Wednesday, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, and other government officials failed to appear before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on the alleged loss of 2.4 billion dollars resulting from the illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude.

The ad hoc committee stated that it is giving Malami, the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, one final opportunity to appear before the committee and speak on inflows from whistleblower recoveries.

The Committee Chairman, Mark Gbillah, stated this on Wednesday after the invited parties failed to respond to the committee’s invitation last week.

The lawmakers said that the AGF and the finance minister have failed to respond to any correspondence from the committee.

According to the chairman of the committee, documents from the Accountant General showed that payments have been made to whistle blowers and recoveries from whistle blowers but no evidence to show that those monies were expended in accordance with the relevant laws.

The committee said if the government officials failed to honour the invitation this time, they will be summoned and further statutory powers will be exercised.