The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, has agreed to testify before the House of Representatives committee investigating the barrels of illegal crude oil exported to global destinations from 2014 to date.
A House of Reps committee is investigating an alleged missing 48 million barrels of crude oil allegedly sold in China by some Nigerian officials.
The committee then summoned Malami and Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed over the matter. Malami and Ahmed, however, ignored the summons. The committee then issued another summons, noting that it may be forced to take action.
At the committee’s resumed session on Thursday, Chairman Mark Gbillah announced that Malami had written a letter stating that he would be appearing before the committee and cooperating with the ongoing investigation.
Gbillah noted that Malami indicated in the latter that the Ministry of Justice was trying to put together a comprehensive response to the alleged sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil valued at over $2.4 billion.
“Today we are in receipt of a letter from the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice, who is averring his determination to respect the doctrine of separation of powers and to support our extant laws. And he has indicated the fact that they are trying to put together the comprehensive response that we have raised,” Gbillah said.
“While we appreciate the Attorney General’s response, we would like to indicate that it came a lot later than we expected and it came without the response that we referred to.”
He added that the committee would expect the attorney general to provide the required response and to also appear before the committee next Thursday.
Gbillah also stated that the finance minister has continued to ignore the summons but that the committee is still giving her the benefit of doubt.
“Like I already said, we are giving her the benefit of the doubt, we are not unmindful of the other powers we have and we are not afraid to exert them, and we will do so if the leeway we have provided is still neglected and not recognised by the honourable Minister of Finance,” Gbilah said.
