The Federal House of Representatives Committee on Public Account on Wednesday threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Attahiru 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).
The queries were raised on the expenditures of INEC from the audited accounts spanning from 2003 to 2011, while NPC’s queries cover 2003 to 2009.
Members of the committee, headed by Solomon Adeola, took the decision after the consideration of the overview of the five previous invitations sent to the commission.
Expressing displeasure with the complacency of the commissions, Adeola sought the permission of the committee to issue a warrant on the affected officials for their recalcitrance, which was unanimously supported through voice voting.
He vowed that the committee would issue a warrant of arrest on the duo on Thursday and compel Inspector General of Police (IGP) to bring both of them to the committee’s sitting next Wednesday.
Anyone who occupies public office must show due diligence and accountability, and this the Parliament will demand of them whether they like it or not,” he said.
“When INEC looked for power to be on first line charge, it ran to Parliament and its problem was solved. Why is it now afraid of showing up to give account of what it has spent? We insist the head of these organisations must show up to give proper account of what they used monies allocated to them for.
“Nobody will be allowed to behave as if they are bigger than Nigeria as a country. INEC will soon be making budget for 2015 elections, but it must first clear all doubts raised on its award of contracts for 2003 and 2007 elections.”
He added that the lowrer chamber expects the commission to make the clarifications but since its chairman has refused to turn up willingly, it will issue a warrant on Thursday, “asking the Police to bring them down here next Friday to clear all doubts raised by the auditor general against their audited accounts.”
