Reps issue arrest warrant on CBN Governor, Accountant General

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petition has authorized the issuance of arrest warrants for Olayemi Cardoso, the Governor of the Central Bank (CBN), Mrs. Oluwatoyin Madein, the Accountant General of the Federation, and 17 others. This action was taken due to their failure to appear before the committee to address inquiries regarding their operations.

Among those facing arrest are the Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), the CEO of Ethiope Eastern Exploration and Production Company Ltd, and the CEO of Western Africa Exploration and Production. The decision to issue the warrants followed a motion presented by Fred Agbedi (PDP-Bayelsa) during the committee’s hearing on Tuesday.

Agbedi explained that the arrest warrants were deemed necessary due to the non-cooperative stance of the individuals invited. He urged the Inspector General of Police to bring the CEOs before the committee using the arrest warrants, following an evaluation by the Speaker, Rep. Tajudeen Abbas.

Chairman of the committee, Micheal Irom (APC-Cross River), in his ruling, instructed the IGP to ensure the appearance of all the CEOs before the committee on December 14.

The petitioner, Fidelis Uzowanem, highlighted that the basis of the petition stemmed from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) report of 2021. This report summarized transactions in the oil and gas industry for the year 2021 and was subject to challenge by NEITI.

Uzowanem asserted that the 2024 budget proposal of 27.5 trillion could be funded from the recoverable amounts identified in the NEITI report. He alleged that the report concealed fraudulent transactions dating back to 2016, involving the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) and various oil companies.

The petitioner revealed instances where NEITI allegedly obscured actual payments, citing examples involving Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Ltd, Chevron, and Nigeria Agip Company. According to Uzowanem, these discrepancies amounted to funds being laundered by NNPCL through the mentioned companies, and NEITI was accused of concealing these irregularities in its report.