Malami yields to Reps’ demand for answers on N48m missing oil barrels

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, has agreed to testify before a House of Representatives committee investigating the alleged illegal exportation of crude oil.

POLITICS NIGERIA reports that the committee is investigating the alleged sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil worth over $2.4 billion by Nigerian officials in China between 2014 and the present day.

Initially, the committee had summoned both Malami and Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed to appear before it, but the officials had ignored the summons. Following a second summons, Malami wrote a letter indicating that he would cooperate with the ongoing investigation and appear before the committee.

During the committee’s most recent session, Chairman Mark Gbillah confirmed Malami’s willingness to testify and added that the attorney general had stated that the Ministry of Justice was working on a comprehensive response to the allegations.

“Today we are in receipt of a letter from the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice, who is averring his determination to respect the doctrine of separation of powers and to support our extant laws. And he has indicated the fact that they are trying to put together the comprehensive response that we have raised,” Gbillah said.

“While we appreciate the Attorney General’s response, we would like to indicate that it came a lot later than we expected and it came without the response that we referred to.”

Gbillah also noted that the committee expected Malami to provide the necessary response and appear before it next Thursday.

However, it is understood that the Finance Minister has continued to ignore the committee’s summons, although they are still giving her the benefit of the doubt.

“Like I already said, we are giving her the benefit of the doubt, we are not unmindful of the other powers we have and we are not afraid to exert them, and we will do so if the leeway we have provided is still neglected and not recognised by the honourable Minister of Finance,” Gbilah said.