Senate threatens to issue warrant of arrest on heads of MDAs

The Senate has threatened to issue warrants of arrest on some ministries department and agencies of government over failure to appear before it and respond to queries by the Auditor General of the Federation.

Tribune Online reports that the threat follows the refusal of the agencies of government to honour the invitation of the Senate to respond to the audit queries issued against them.

The Senate’s query was extended to the Ministries Department and Agencies (MDA) by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts.

Chairman of Senate Committee on public account, Senator Matthew Urhogide said the situation where government agencies fail to appear before the panel has become an ugly pastime by persons charged with government functions in the country.

He listed in this case the MDAs that have failed to honour the invitation of the committee to include the Ministry of Information, Culture and National Orientation; Ministry of Petroleum Resources; Ministry of Power; Ministry of Women Affairs; Ministry of Solid Minerals and the National Population Commission (NPC).

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His words: “Over a month ago, we wrote to them to come and answer the audit queries raised against them by the Auditor-General of the Federation in its 2015 Audit Report.

“But they have deliberately and irresponsibly failed to honour our invitation. Their failure to appear before this Committee amount to outright disobedience to constituted authority.

“It is only in Nigeria that people will spend government’s money and fail to show up to defend their expenditure,” he said.

Senator Urhoghide stated that if they continue to defy the committee, the Senate committee will have no option but to invoke section 89 of the Constitution to contain their excesses and serve Nigeria.

Section 89 of the Constitution states that: “For the purposes of any investigation under section 88 of this Constitutional and subject to the provisions thereof, the Senate or the House of Representatives or a committee appointed in accordance with section 62 of this Constitution shall have power to – procure all such evidence, written or oral, direct or circumstantial, as it may think necessary or desirable, and examine all persons as witnesses
whose evidence may be material or relevant to the subject matter; require such evidence to be given on oath; summon any person in Nigeria to give evidence at any place or produce any document or other thing in his possession or under his control, and examine him as a witness and require him to produce any document or other thing in his possession or under his control, subject to all just exceptions; and issue a warrant to compel the attendance of any person who, after having been summoned to attend, fails, refuses or neglects to do so and does not excuse such failure, refusal or neglect to the satisfaction of the House or the committee in question.”