Senate threatens Lai Mohammed, others with arrest

The Senate on Thursday threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, and other heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) over their failure to honour its invitation.

This comes after the Senate Committee on Public Accounts invited them to answer audit queries issued by the Auditor General of the Federation against them.

The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, told journalists in Abuja that the failure of the heads of agencies to honour the panel’s invitation had become an ugly pastime.

The MDAs that failed to appear include the Ministry of Information, Culture and National Orientation, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry of Solid Minerals and the National Population Commission (NPC).

“Over a month ago, we wrote to them to come and answer the audit queries raised against them by the Auditor-General of the Federation in its 2015 Audit Report.

“But they have deliberately and irresponsibly failed to honour our invitation. Their failure to appear before this Committee amount to outright disobedience to constituted authority,” Urhoghide said.

He said the hindrances caused by the failure of the agencies to appear before the panel was part of the reasons Nigerians often accuse the National Assembly of not discharging its duties.

“It is only in Nigeria that people will spend government’s money and fail to show up to defend their expenditure,” he said.

He added that the Committee has no choice but to compel the defaulting agencies to appear before it in line with Section 89 of the Constitution.