Rt. Hon. Idris Wase, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Federal Character
The House of Representatives Committee on Federal Character on Tuesday berated the Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Arc. Sonny T. Echono, for failing to appear at an Investigative Hearing to defend the activities of the Agency.
Chairman of the Committee, Rt. Hon. Idris Wase, was upset Echono failed to turn up even after several invitations.
Rt. Hon. Wase also knocked the Industrial Training Fund, the Transmission Company of Nigeria, the National Sugar Development Council for also failing to honour the Committee’s invitation.
He said they were taking the Committee for granted over their persistent refusal to honour invitations and that henceforth it would not be tolerated.
The representative of the Executive Secretary of TETFund at the meeting, Babatunde Oladeji, who is the Director of monitoring and evaluation in the fund, told the Committee that the Executive Secretary was away on official leave.
Rt. Hon. Wase, stressed that all Agencies of Government must be accountable and transparent to the Nigerian people.
He stressed that, henceforth they would be sanctioned in accordance to the Law if they continue to avoid the Parliament.
He said, You must be accountable to the House. This is the last time. Next time the Committee would invoke its powers provided for in the Constitution.
Rt. Hon. Wase said because of the way heads of Agencies were treating the Parliament with levity, the Committee had to advertise in three national dailies apart from the letters.
He said they could not attend to their representatives as they were not accountable for the various Agencies.
The Committee has not been doing it’s job properly in the past that is why people think they can do anything and carry on with it. It would not be business as usual.
“This is your last warning. Tell him that the Committee is not willing to go the way he thinks Or take the Committee for granted. But if he thinks he has the power to do that, then we shall meet at the appropriate point. We will make every Chief Executive accountable. They should not test the will of the Committee,” he told the representative of the TETFund Boss.
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