The Group Managing Director (GMD), Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd, Mele Kyari; the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva; the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Godwin Emefiele; and the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, yesterday shunned the inaugural investigative hearing on the state of the country’s refineries by a House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee.

Also expected at the probe but absent was the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, as well as the Managing Directors of Port Harcourt, Kaduna, and Warri Refineries among other agency heads.

On February 4, 2022, the Speaker of the House Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, had set up the Ad-hoc Committee to investigate and determine the state of refineries in the country and what is needed to bring them back to maximum refining capacity.

Chairman of the Committee, Johnson Ganiyu, who expressed displeasure over the absence of the agency heads directed that they must appear before the committee by next Thursday.

Shortly after the commencement of the hearing, the Committee Chairman directed the guests present to introduce themselves and in the process, the lawmakers discovered that none of the invited heads of the agencies was present.

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However, the NNPC, Budget Office of the Federation, and the Accountant General’s Office sent representatives, but the lawmakers were not satisfied.

Most of the agencies had no representation at all at the hearing.