The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions, on Wednesday, invited the Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi, to appear before it on February 18, 2025 over the failure of some top officials of the service to leave the service after their due retirement dates.
This followed the consideration of a petition by the Obasi-Pherson Help Foundation, alleging that some Assistant Comptrollers and Comptrollers were due for retirement but had blatantly refused to leave the service.
A statement issued on Wednesday by the Head of Media, House Committee on Public Petitions, Chooks Oko, named the concerned officers as Imam, Umar and Egwu, all Assistant Comptrollers, and Awe, Fatia and Faith, Comptrollers.
Issuing the summons, the committee noted that the Comptroller General had a duty as a public officer to explain to Nigerians what the true position was.
“Nigerians deserve to know the truth of the matter and it is only the CG that can clarify the situation. We are elected to serve the people and ensure that all government agencies function effectively as part of that service.
“In this era when most of our youths are looking for jobs, it will be wrong for the older ones who are due for retirement to refuse to go,” the Chairman of the Committee on Public Petitions, Mike Etaba, was quoted as saying.
“That is not to say we shall take sides, far from it. We treat each case on merit, ensuring that justice is given at all times to the deserving, “ he added.
Meanwhile, the committee also threatened to order the arrest of the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Identity Management Commission, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, if she fails to come in person to answer charges on refusal to pay for the state-of-the-art software development project installed and deployed to the commission by a private firm, Truid Limited.
Truid Limited, in a petition to the committee, alleged a breach of the licence agreement by the NIMC.
Counsel for Truid Limited, E. R. Opara, said the agreement was premised on an arrangement whereby Truid Limited funded, developed and deployed a tokenisation system without any financial obligation from NIMC.
Truid was to get returns on her investment through the patronage of service providers and the proceeds shared on an agreed ratio.
This was to run for an initial period of 10 years from 2021 when the software was deployed.
According to the petition, things were going on smoothly until the appointment of the new DG of NIMC, who has been trying to truncate the agreement.
Reacting to the submissions of the counsel of both the petitioners and the respondents, Etaba frowned on the continued absence of the NIMC Director General despite several invitations.
“If she fails to show up at the next hearing of this case, we’ll have no option than to ask the Inspector General of Police to bring her. How can an official of government treat constituted authority with such levity? We can no longer condone such attitude,” Etaba warned.
