BY AHMED AKANBI
The Senate has threatened sanctions against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) for shunning a public hearing on the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI)’s 2021 to 2023 audit reports.
The planned probe of the oil and gas industry audit reports by the NEITI, suffered a setback on Monday when the three agencies failed to appear.
The hearing was organized by the Senate Public Accounts Committee chaired by Senator Ibrahim Dankwabo (Gombe North) and was expected to run for three weeks with heads and management teams of affected agencies in attendance.
But at the commencement of the session, none of the invited agencies, including CBN, NDDC, NUPRC, and even NEITI, the author of the audit reports, showed up.
Irked by the boycott, the committee ordered the management of the three agencies to appear unfailingly on Thursday, August 6, 2026.
Dankwabo warned that failure to honour the new date would attract serious sanctions under relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution and the Senate Standing Orders.
A committee member, Senator Babangida Hussaini (Jigawa North West), urged the panel to invoke constitutional powers against the heads of the absentee agencies.
“I rely on Sections 47 and 60 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, and our Standing Rules. The powers of this committee are derived from these provisions.
“It is a distraction to the National Assembly for any agency to refuse to appear and answer audit queries validly raised. This committee and Nigerians are being taken for granted. Drastic measures must be taken,” Hussaini said.
Another member, Senator Patrick Ndubueze (Imo North), pushed for immediate sanctions rather than granting a second chance.
“Mr Chairman, this reflects the level of commitment of government agencies. No letter was written. No excuse was offered. No representative was sent. To me, they don’t deserve a second chance,” he said.
Despite the snub, the committee said it would proceed with the hearing, with expected appearances from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), and Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, (RMAFC), and others.