The House of Representatives has threatened to issue warrants of arrest on the Director of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the Managing Director of National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), over failure to submit documents before the House Joint Committees on Finance, banking and currency on the investigative hearing into the alleged $30 billion annual revenue leakages by multinational oil companies.
Other companies and agencies expected to present documents are; PAN Ocean Oil Nigeria Ltd, Statoil Company Ltd, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Ltd, Pipeline and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), Addax Petroleum Development Company Ltd, Chevron, sterling oil exploration, heritage oil exploration and a host of others. This was made known by the Chairmen of the Committees on Finance, James Faleke and Banking and Currency Victor Nwokolo on Tuesday.
Rep. Faleke explained to the press that several letters have been written to the aforementioned agencies and organisations which were not honoured. “The multinational companies are also accused of tax evasion, malpractices, misuse and diversion of foreign exchange allocations. “The Joint Committees have given the organisations seven days to furnish the Committee with details of documents required or face arrest in line with the Constitutional provision”, the chairman Committee on Finance said.
It would be recalled that the House at plenary on 5 of March, 2020 mandated its Committees on Finance and Banking and Currency to conduct a public hearing to ascertain the abuse of billions of dollars in foreign allocation to companies for the purpose of payment of foreign vendors, the various originating documents maintained by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Deposit Money Banks, Forex Dealers, Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) and other beneficiary companies.
