The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has condemned the non-appearance of top officials of the Federal Government before the Ad Hoc Committee on the Volume of Fuel Consumed Daily in Nigeria at its investigative hearing in Abuja on Tuesday.

Gbajabiamila particularly called out the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva; Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele; and the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (formerly Group Managing Director of the defunct Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation), Melee Kyari; as well as the Managing Director of Petroleum Pipeline Marketing Company, Isiaku Abdullahi, among others.

Consequently, the committee, chaired by Abdulkadir Abdullahi, summoned the GMD of the NNPC; MD of the PPMC; Accountant-General of the Federation; the CBN governor; Minister of State and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources; Minister of Finance and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance.

The Speaker, who was represented by the Deputy Majority Leader, Peter Akpatason, was miffed by the fact that most of the critical stakeholders were absent from the hearing while those sent to represent a few of them were officials whose cadres were lower than those required to answer questions on behalf of their organisations.