The House of Representatives on Wednesday summoned the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari for allegedly awarding a shipping contract to a foreign company, UNIBROS.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring, Legor Idagbo, invited Amaechi and Kyari at the end of the investigative hearing on the contract allegedly awarded in 2020.
The duo, who were absent at the hearing, were given seven days to appear before the committee.
The Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mohammed Nami, had in a letter to the committee, said UNIBROS was not registered in its database, adding that payment had been made in the name of the company.
The President of the Shippers Association of Nigeria (SOAN), Dr. George Onyung, who attended the hearing, said the NNPC did not follow due process in the award of the contract.
He insisted that the corporation sidelined local shippers and opted for a foreign firm to execute the contract.
In his address, Idagbor said the contract breached the extant laws and directed the affected parties to provide all the details of the contract.
He said: “Let me state on record that this committee is totally displeased by the correspondence signed by one Garba Mohammed, Group Public Affairs Division from NNPC.
“We wrote a letter to the GMD NNPC on this investigative hearing and if for any reason, he could not be here present, he should have at least had the courtesy of responding to the communication that was issued by this committee himself.
“This committee expects NNPC to furnish it with every single detail of the contract that was awarded in 2020; every relevant information that is needed because this is an investigative hearing and without NNPC supplying us with this document, as we are now we do not have any documentation.
“So we discountenance this, we take it that we have not heard from NNPC and in our next adjourned date if NNPC does not appear on that date, we would not hesitate to follow the process of the law and the powers given to the National Assembly.
“The Ministry of Transport should also furnish us with necessary information on the same contract. For us to move forward. This meeting is adjourned for one week
