THE House of Representatives' Committee on Public Account has resolved to issue a warrant for the arrest of the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, for failing to honour invitations of the parliament to defend queries raised on the audited account of the voting body as raised by the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
The same treatment is to be meted out to the Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Festus Odimegwu.
The committee said that queries were raised on the expenditures of INEC from its audited accounts from year 2003 to 2011 while that of NPC was from 2003 to 2009.
The power to issue the warrant on the heads of two commissions' chairmen was passed onto the chairman of the committee, Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, by its members at a meeting during which they received briefing on the alleged refusal of the duo to honour the invitations.
Olamilekan, at the meeting, said the heads of INEC and NPC had ignored the invitations five times.
Olamilekan said the committee would issue a warrant of arrest on the duo today (Thursday) and compel the Inspector-General of Police to bring both of them to the committee's sitting next Wednesday.
Olamilekan added: "Anyone who occupies public office must show due diligence and accountability and this the parliament will demand of them whether they like it or not.
"When INEC looked for power to be on first line charge, it ran to parliament and its problem was solved, why is it now afraid of showing up to give account of what it has spent? We insist the head of these organisations must show up to give proper account of what they used monies allocated to them for.
"Nobody will be allowed to behave as if they were bigger than Nigeria as a country. INEC will soon be making budget for 2015 elections, but it must first clear all doubts raised on its award of contracts for 2003 and 2007 elections.
"This we expect the commission to do, but since they have refused to turn up willingly, we will tomorrow (today) issue a warrant asking the police to bring them down here next Friday to clear all doubts raised by the auditor general against their audited accounts."
