NNPC probe: OBJ faces fresh threat of summon

Idowu Samuel and Bola Badmus, Abuja - 16.05.2008

The House of Representatives is not yet through with for-mer President Olusegun Obasanjo on necessity to bring him to the National Assembly following indication by the Ad-Hoc Committee on the probe of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) to do so on Thursday.

Obasanjo had escaped a one-on-one session with the House probe panel on the Power sector last Monday, having failed to turn up for the special public hearing scheduled for him and his former Deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on the probe of power sector.

Addressing the media on the scheduled investigation of the NNPC and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), chairman of the 26-man Ad-Hoc Committee, Honourable Igo Aguma, dropped a hint that Obasanjo and any other Nigerian would be summoned to testify when the proper investigation starts if it was necessary.

Aguma said his committee was not in a hurry to start the investigation of the NNPC and all its subsidiaries owing to the enormity of issues involved in such investigation, adding that the committee had even initiated the process of hiring international consultants and auditors to assist in the investigation.