The Ad Hoc committee set up by the House of Representatives to investigate power-sector reforms and spending from 2007 to 2024 has invited several key government bodies, including the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), the Budget Office, the Office of the Accountant-General, the Ministries of Finance and Power, and the Office of the Auditor-General, for repeatedly avoiding legislative inquiry.
The Chairman of the committee, Ibrahim Almustapha Aliyu, issued the summons during a continued hearing in Abuja, expressing his frustration over the inability of these agencies to respond to official letters and also provide documents essential to the investigation.
He warned that the committee would no longer accept what he described as a persistent pattern of evasion by an institution expected to clarify years of spending in the power sector. Aliyu ordered all summoned agencies to appear before the committee by December 8, cautioning that any further noncompliance would compel the House to exercise its constitutional authority.
He explained that the committee had written to the agencies multiple times, first on November 12, followed by another on November 19, along with additional reminders, without receiving any response or required documentation.
“We are getting increasingly frustrated,” he said. “We cannot pre-empt their reasons for refusing to appear, but these ministries and agencies are critical to the success of this investigation.”
Committee members initially backed a motion calling on the chairman to extend time for the agencies to appear and to expand communication channels. They proposed that the summons be publicized in the media so that no MDA could later claim to be unaware of the invitation.
Aliyu accepted the recommendations, stating that the committee would publish the notices and send out new letters as a final gesture of goodwill before resorting to the legal powers granted under sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution, which authorize the National Assembly to compel attendance and request documents from any individual or institution.
He stressed that the continued resistance by these agencies to appear before the committee would jeopardize the investigation, which seeks to determine why the trillions of naira invested in the power sector over the past 17 years have not provided a reliable power supply to Nigerians.
“We cannot continue this way,” Aliyu said. “These agencies must come forward with their records. The Nigerian people deserve answers.”
