The Senate’s planned investigation into the management of oil subsidy was on Thursday stalled as only the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, appeared before the joint Committee probing the issue.
The Joint Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Appropriation and Finance investigating the scheme, had invited Okonjo-Iweala, her Petroleum counterpart Diezani Allison-Madueke and the CBN Governor Sanusi Sanusi.
The committee also invited the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, the Comptroller General of Customs as well as the Chief of Naval Staff.
Only the Finance Minister appeared before the committee but could not make a presentation.
She said she had just returned from a trip abroad and appealed to the Committee for more time to enable her to draft a comprehensive brief.
The Senate had on Oct. 12, mandated the joint committee to investigate the operation of the fuel subsidy scheme.
It took the decision after debating a motion brought by Sen. Bukola Saraki (PDP-Kwara) on the need to conduct the exercise.
Sen. Magnus Abe (PDP-Rivers), the Chairman of the Senate Joint Committee probing the scheme, had told newsmen that the committee received a response from only the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency.
He said the NNPC sent a letter to the Committee explaining its inability to appear before the committee due to ongoing investigation in the House of Representatives.
The chairman said “we will re-invite all those involved and make sure that our timing does not clash with the House of Representatives investigative hearing’’.
The Committee had written to the public officials, inviting them to a meeting and also requesting them to submit written briefs on what they knew about the operations of the fuel subsidy scheme.
The brief was expected to have been submitted on Oct. 31 to allow the committees time to study the documents, which were expected to form the background for the public hearing.