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Directs mandatory appearance on July 10
By Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has ordered the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd), Engineer Bayo Ojulari, to appear before it without fail on July 10, or risk a warrant of arrest.
The committee, chaired by Senator Aliyu Wadada Ahmed (Nasarawa West), issued the directive during a brief session on Thursday, June 26, 2025, after officials of NNPC Ltd failed to appear before it as earlier scheduled.
NNPC Ltd was to appear before the lawmakers to respond to queries raised last week regarding a staggering N210 trillion allegedly unaccounted for by the company between 2017 and 2023, as detailed in audit reports.
But to the committee’s displeasure, no NNPC Ltd representative attended Thursday’s hearing. Instead, a letter signed by Adedapo Segun on behalf of the GCEO on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, was read by the committee clerk, Sani Abdullahi, requesting an additional two months to prepare a detailed response and furnish the committee with required documents.
Adedapo said the management of the national oil company was on a retreat and could not be present at the pre-scheduled meeting.
Reacting to the letter, the committee rejected the request and condemned the absence of NNPC Ltd officials, saying it demonstrated a disregard for the committee’s summons.
“We expected representatives from the NNPC Ltd to be before us today to answer questions thrown at them last week on issues or queries raised in the audit reports before us,” the chairman said. “Their absence is unacceptable, and as a result, this committee is giving the relevant officials from NNPC Ltd ten working days from today, which ends on the 10th of July, 2025.”
“This committee was not expecting any documents from NNPC Ltd today but answers to the eleven questions thrown at its representatives last week. Therefore, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of NNPC Ltd must appear before us on the 10th of July for the expected answers.”
He added that failure to appear on the scheduled date would leave the committee with no choice but to invoke and assert all its constitutional powers to compel the GCEO’s appearance.
In a broader warning, Wadada also declared that the committee may adopt audit queries against other defaulting agencies, including the FCT High Court and the Federal Ministries of Solid Minerals, Steel Development, and Finance, if they fail to appear before it on Tuesday, July 1, 2025.
