The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions has summoned the Comptroller-General of Nigerian Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi, to appear before it on February 18.
A statement by the Head of Media/Public Petitions Committee, House of Representatives, Chuks Oko, yesterday in Abuja, said the Customs Comptroller-General was summoned to answer to a petition before it over the refusal of some top officials of the service to leave the service after their due retirement dates.
“Obasi-Pherson Help Foundation had petitioned the 10th House, alleging that some assistant comptrollers and comptrollers were due for retirement but have blatantly refused to leave the service.
“They named the affected officers as Imam, Umar and Egwu, all assistant comptrollers, as well as Awe, Fatia and Faith, all comptrollers, as the culprits,” he said.
Issuing the summons, the House said Adeniyi had a duty as a public officer to explain to Nigerians the true situation.
“Nigerians deserve to know the truth of the matter and it is only the CG that can clarify the situation,” he said.
Oko quoted the Chairman of the Committee on Public Petitions, Mike Etaba, as saying that they were elected to serve the people and ensure that all the government agencies function effectively.
“In this era when most of our youths are looking for a job, it will be wrong for the older ones who are due for retirement to refuse to go.
“That is not to say that we shall take sides, far from it. We treat each case on its merit, ensuring that justice is given at all times to the deserving,” he Etaba said.
Similarly, the committee has threatened to order the arrest of the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Bisoye Coker-Odusote.
The committee said it would actualise the threat if she failed to come in person to answer charges on refusal to pay for the state-of-the-art software development project.
Chairman of the committee, Etaba frowned at the continuous absence of the NIMC boss despite several invitations.
“If she fails to show up at the next hearing of this case, we’ll have no option than to ask the Inspector-General of Police to bring her.
“How can an official of government treat constituted authority with such levity? We can no longer condone such an attitude,” he said.
The project was installed and deployed to the commission by a private firm, Truid Limited, which alleged a breach of licence agreement by NIMC.
According to E. R. Opara, counsel to Truid Limited, the agreement was premised on an arrangement that the project would be funded by the firm.
“Truid was to get returns on her investment through patronage of service providers and the proceeds shared on an agreed ratio.
“This was to run for an initial period of 10 years, from 2021 when the software was deployed,” Opara said.