Senate is planning to take a tougher action against the officials of the Pensions Reform Task Team invited to the investigative hearing of its Joint Committee, but failed to honour the invitation.
In spite of an arrest warrant issued for the the Chairman of the task team, Abdulrasheed Maina, who is at the centre of the probe of N195bn pensions fund, he refused to attend the public hearing.
The committee was forced to adjourn sitting sine die (indefinitely), with a promise to submit its report to the Senate detailing the efforts to get Maina to appear.
Leader of the Senate, Victor Ndoma-Egba, in a text message in response to our correspondent's enquiry, said the National Assembly would return from the Christmas break to take action against Maina and others.
Asked if the Senate was helpless in the face of Maina's refusal to honour its invitation, Ndoma-Egba said, “Of course we have recourses which will be applied as soon as we resume from the Christmas break.
“The Senate is certainly not helpless. No individual will be allowed to be bigger than our institutions, definitely not this Senate.”
Spokesman for the Senate, Enyinnaya Abaribe, said the upper chamber would take a decision when the lawmakers return from break.
According to him, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, was expected to bring Maina to the Assembly on the day the warrant was signed by the Senate, but the PRTT boss turned up late, making his arrest unnecessary.
He said Maina was expected to return to the committee at a scheduled date, but failed to turn up due to certain circumstances.
He said, “We will not say that the IG refused to carry out the orders because when the warrant for his arrest was signed, Maina suddenly showed up so that he did not need to be arrested again. But he came late and he was expected to return to the committee.”
Abaribe said the committee would submit its report and that the Senate would reach a decision on how to deal with the matter.
