The House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise has expressed displeasure over the failure of heads of government agencies to attend its investigative hearing as invited.
The Committee on Customs and Excise and the Committee on Interior had invited the Minister of Interior, Comptroller General of Customs, Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service and other stakeholders to the investigative hearing on the modernisation of the Nigeria Customs Service.
The House of Representatives, in two separate sittings, mandated its committees to investigate the e-Customs modernization project concession awarded under the Trade Modernization Project (TMP). The investigation will also ‘focus on the role of Webb Fontaine within the e-Customs framework and emphasize the urgent need to deploy advanced technology to strengthen Nigeria’s border security and address issues related to illegal migration and border management.’
While the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji Ojo was said to be out of the country and could not attend the session with the lawmakers, no reason was given for the absence of the Customs boss and his Immigration counterpart.
A member of the Committee, Olumide Osoba while expressing concerns over the absence of the Chief Executives said “section 88 of the constitution gives the parliament the power to invite any individual to appear before it to offer an explanation and that in such instance, only the Chief Executives of the agencies are to appear before the parliament.”
Osoba further said the “investigative hearing cannot be held as those representing the Chief Executives were not in position to provide the answers being sought by the parliament.”
Furthermore, another member of the Committee, Hon. Awaji-Inombek Abiante, said the refusal of the Head of agencies was an afront to the parliament, adding that if they refuse to show up on the next adjourned date, the Committee and the parliament should invoke its powers and recommend their removal from office.
Abiante stressed that their refusal to honour parliamentary invitation would mean that they are either tired of the job or incompetent to carry out their assigned duties.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Customs, Leke Abejide, in his ruling said while “the investigative hearing on the customs modernisation had to do with improving government revenue, the second one deals with the security of the nation.”
Abejide said despite the busy schedule of the lawmakers, they made time to carry out the national assignment, pointing out that the investigative hearing would have to be shifted to another day, preferably after the passage of the national budget and at a time when the Chief Executives will be available to answer questions from members.
However, the Committee was expected to investigate the concession of the operations of the customs to Trade Modernisation Project and why Webb Fontaine that has managed the collection process are still the ones operating the system.
ThisDay Newspaper