The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has ordered the immediate arrest of Mele Kyari, the former Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
The directive was issued following Kyari’s repeated failure to appear before the panel to answer queries regarding ₦210 trillion in allegedly unaccounted funds between 2017 and 2023.
The decision to issue a warrant of arrest came after a heated session where some lawmakers attempted to plead for leniency on Kyari’s behalf. Senators Saliu Mustapha and Tony Nwoye informed the panel that the former NNPCL boss was currently in Germany receiving medical treatment.
However, other members of the committee vehemently rejected the explanation, noting that no formal documentary evidence was provided to back up the medical claim.
”The law must be effective when it catches the lion, not only when it catches the rabbit,” argued Senator Adams Oshiomhole, insisting that the committee must assert its constitutional powers to compel appearance. “There are serious issues, not raised by laymen, but by competent auditors. And the man is joking?”
Senator Victor Umeh formally moved the motion for Kyari’s arrest, noting that the committee had been pursuing the investigation for over a year. The motion was seconded by the Deputy Chairman of the committee, Senator Peter Nwaebonyi, who pointed out that this marked the ninth time the committee had met to address the 19 audit queries raised by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
Following a unanimous voice vote, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo, sustained the motion and ordered law enforcement agencies to act swiftly.
”Wherever Mele Kyari is, he should be arrested and brought before this committee,” Dankwambo ruled.
While the arrest warrant was being finalized, the former Chief Financial Officer of the NNPCL, Umar Ajiya Isa, appeared before the panel to defend the company’s financial records, strongly dismissing the ₦210 trillion figure as mathematically impossible.
According to Ajiya, the entire revenue generated by the NNPCL during the six-year period under review was significantly less than the amount alleged to be missing.
Ajiya argued that the allegations were damaging and unfounded, asserting that the management’s transparency during their tenure speaks for itself.
”To be clear, if money had gone missing at NNPC during our tenure, we would not have had the courage to publish audited accounts,” Ajiya stated. “For over 40 years, those accounts were either not prepared, not made public, or not even shared with the Auditor-General.”
The Public Accounts Committee has reiterated that despite the explanation from the former CFO, Kyari must still appear in person to formally clear the audit queries.
