THE Senate on Wednesday gave executives of Glo Mobile and other firms allegedly involved in N30 trillion Federal Government revenue leakage till Thursday to appear before it for defence.
The other companies given the deadline by the Senate Joint Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff and Marine Transport, probing the revenue loss are British American Tobacco Company, CCEC Nigeria Ltd and Dana Group.
Also affected are African Wire and Allied Ltd, Admiral Overseas Nigeria Ltd., Aarti Steel Nigeria Ltd., Gagsel International, Fries Land Capina, Etco Nigeria Ltd and Encounter Ltd.
They also include Edic Chemicals and Allied Distributors Ltd, Don Climax Group and De United Foods Chairman of the committee, Sen.
Hope Uzodinma, gave the ultimatum at an investigative meeting with some of the firms in Abuja.
He decried the failure of the firms to honour the committee’s invitation to Wednesday’s meeting, saying it was disrespect to the National Assembly and would not be tolerated.
Uzodinma said that of the 30 firms invited between Tuesday and Wednesday, only 14 appeared before members of the committee.
According to him, the chief executive officers are expected to cut short whatever engagement they have to honour the invitation in view of the magnitude of the investigation.
“It is only in Nigeria that the Senate will invite an entity for an interactive session, particularly in a case that borders on investigation, financial mismanagement and infractions, and the company will be complacent.
“The companies will not be willing to come or sometimes send junior officers.
“I have directed, and we are working with security agencies, that any company that is invited and has something to explain and refuses to appear, we will issue a warrant for such persons to be arrested.
“We are giving them the final opportunity to appear and if they fail, we will issue a warrant of arrest. “In this investigation, we are working with the Nigeria Police.
“This is because we are using their facilities to process some of our data so that the information we will present to the public will be information with high integrity that will not be questioned by anybody.
“We have directed that the firms must come tomorrow, Thursday unfailingly,’’ he said.
Addressing representatives of firms present at the meeting, Uzodinma said that they would be given documents arising from the investigation carried out by the committee to study and comply.
