Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega has explained his inability to honour previous invitations of the Federal House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts, saying he had been out of the country for long and returned only earlier in the week.
On Wednesday, the Committee had threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against Jega and Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC) for failing to honour invitations of the Parliament to defend several queries raised by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF), relating to their expenditures from the audited accounts spanning from 2003 to 2011, and 2003 to 2009, respectively.
But in a Thursday letter addressed to Chairman of the committee, Hon Solomon Adeola, Jega promised to make the next sitting.
“I learnt from the media this morning that your honourable committee has resolved to issue an arrest warrant on me, following my failure to appear before it at its scheduled sitting on Wednesday, January 30th, 2013,” he wrote in the letter.
“The resolution, obviously, was borne out of the anger of committee members over my unfortunate absence at the Wednesday sitting. It is, thus, perfectly understandable.
“Permit me to say, however, that my failure to respond to your committee’s invitation was wholly unintended and regrettable. I had travelled out of the country for a while and only returned to office early this week; and there was apparently a communication gap that made me unaware of the invitation to appear before the honourable Committee on Wednesday.”
He assured members of the committee that he had no reason or intention to be disrespectful to them or shun their summons.
“God permitting, I shall be readily available at the next scheduled sitting,” he added. “Once again, be assured of my highest esteem for your good self and all members of the Committee.”
