The House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise, on Monday, frowned on the failure of the Comptroller Generals of Nigeria Customs Service and Nigeria Immigration Service to honour its invitation.
This is as members of the committee cited Section 88 of the Constitution, which empowers the parliament to invite individuals and agencies to provide explanations on the operations of government agencies at any point in time.
The investigation focuses on the concession of the e-Customs project to the Trade Modernisation Project and Webb Fontaine’s role in the e-Customs framework.
At the resumed hearing on Monday, the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, was said to be out of the country while no explanation was tendered for the absence of the heads of Customs and Immigration.
The chairman of the committee, Leke Abejide, said, “The minister himself is not here, the CG of Customs is not here and the CG of Immigration is not here.
“Who are we going to talk to? We cannot talk to any other person apart from the heads of the agencies and the minister.
“This assignment was given to us to carry out on behalf of the government, we are not doing it ourselves.”
A member of the committee, Olumide Osoba, frowned on the development, noting that Section 88 of the Constitution gave the parliament the power to invite any individual to appear before it.
Another member of the committee, Awaji-Inombek Abiante, said the deliberate non-appearance was an affront to the parliament.
He threatened that if they refused to show up on the next adjourned date, the committee should invoke its powers and recommend their removal from office.
Speaking on the matter, Abejide said while the investigative hearing on Customs modernisation was concerned with improving the government revenue, the second dealt with the security of the nation.
Abejide said despite the busy schedule of the lawmakers, they were available for the exercise, adding that the investigative hearing would have to be shifted to another day, preferably after the passage of the 2025 budget proposal.