Senate gives Kyari, NUPRC boss 24 hours to appear for budget defense

This morning, Senator Adeola Olamilekan, who chairs the Senate Appropriation Committee, ordered Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), to come before the committee within the next twenty-four hours.

Failure to appear weakens the legislative and sabotages the process, according to Olamilekan, who urged Kyari to appear with the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

On a daily basis, they must submit the allowed production output, a list of all enterprises operating in Nigeria with OML licences, and more.

He voiced his displeasure that the NNPCL—which he claimed belonged to the federal government and was thus answerable to it and, by extension, all three branches of government—was earmarked for a portion of the funds needed to fund the 2024 budget.

The NNPCL, had earlier spurned for a second time, summons by the Senate to appear before its committee inquiring over N11trn expenditure on turn around maintenance of refineries in the country between 2010 and 2023.

Inaction on the part of Kyari, whose company is under scrutiny, prevented the Senate panel from moving forward with their probe.