The House of Reps Ad hoc committee investigating non-remittance to the National Housing Fund and utilisation of funds, has mandated the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mrs Oluwatoyin Madein, to appear before it, or face arrest.
The committee made this known at its resumed sitting in Abuja on Thursday, when the Director, of Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System appeared before it over non-remittance to NHF.
The committee had earlier invited IPPIS, a department in the Office of the AGF, to appear before the house, for an explanation of fn why it had not remitted to NHF.
Unsatisfied with the information given by the IPPIS director during his appearance in the house on Thursday, the committee said the AGF should appear in person.
Meanwhile, a letter brought by the Director of IPPIS to explain why the AGF could not appear before the committee on Thursday did satisfy the committee, hence her re-invitation to the house.
The committee explained that most of the questions posed before the IPPIS director could not be answered, instructing that he should come with the AGF and must be ready to give further explanation on Sept 7.
The Chairman of the committee, Dachung Bagos, said, “We cannot take the same man who could not give us the information we need from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
“The speaker requested a fair hearing from us and we wouldn’t want to be seen as witch-huntin’ anyone. We would give the fair hearing for the AGF to appear another day.”
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, IPPIS had claimed it had challenges in remitting to NHF.
Similarly, the committee asked Remital, a private organisation that remits the funds, to also reappear on Sept 7, noting that IPPIS was not ready to answer questions from the committee.
While commending the efforts of Remital for appearing before the committee, with requisite documents, the chairman blamed the IPPIS for not being prepared with the necessary documents to quiz the organisation.
Others who appeared before the investigative hearing are the Central Bank of Nigeria, United Bank for Africa, Zenith Bank, Sterling Bank, and Heritage Bank.
However, the chairman of the Committee said there was a need to know the investment of the banking sector, according to the NHF Act that set up the NHF.
While speaking, the General Manager, of UBA, Mr Eke Ogba, said the bank had remitted about N2.5 billion from January 2011 to July 2023 to NHF.
“This is a huge sum. We have given the summary monthly. We have also given the summary of what is deducted monthly from each worker.
“I do not know about investment; we only deduct and remit. I will get the details of the investment; all we have is how much has been deducted from each staff member, ” he said.
