The Senate on Thursday formally dissociated the entire upper legislative chamber from the warrant of arrest issued a day earlier against the former Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, by its Committee on Public Accounts.
The upper chamber also took the rare step of publicly condemning and distancing itself from remarks made during the heated committee hearing by Senator Adams Oshiomhole, who had described the national oil company as a house of thieves and a bunch of criminals.
The clarification came during Thursday’s plenary session in Abuja through a point of order raised by the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele. Citing Orders 41 and 51 of the Senate standing rules, Bamidele argued forcefully that the authority to issue any warrant compelling the attendance of a witness before the Senate or any of its committees is vested exclusively in the Senate President.
He further stated that no committee possesses the legal or constitutional authority to independently issue, authorise, or execute a warrant of arrest on its own. Bamidele asked the Senate to reaffirm its position that any such action must be in strict compliance with the provisions of the Legislative Houses Powers and Privileges Act and must have the express approval of the Senate President.
The Senate subsequently resolved that no committee shall purport to issue, authorise, or execute a warrant except in strict adherence to these established legal procedures.
The unprecedented move came barely twenty-four hours after the Senate Public Accounts Committee, in a dramatic session, ordered the immediate arrest of Mr Kyari over his repeated failure to appear before it. The former NNPC boss is a central figure in a probe into unresolved audit queries involving a staggering N210 trillion contained in the company’s audited accounts between 2017 and 2023. Lawmakers expressed frustration that Mr Kyari had failed to honour the committee’s invitations for the ninth consecutive time.
During the committee hearing, a visibly angry Senator Oshiomhole had moved a motion for the issuance of the warrant, declaring that the committee must have the courage to deploy its constitutional powers. He insisted that the former NNPC boss must be arrested and brought before the committee, even if dead or alive, to account for what he termed alleged crimes running into trillions of naira.
It was during this heated session that Senator Oshiomhole launched a blistering verbal attack on the national oil company, at one point telling a former Chief Financial Officer of the NNPC that the organisation’s reputation is for fraud and that it is a house of thieves where people want their children to work so they can benefit from it. The senator’s comments were widely circulated in the media, prompting the leadership of the Senate to take the unusual step of issuing a formal condemnation of his language on Thursday.
Several senators, including the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, and the Senate Minority Leader, Abba Moro, cautioned the outspoken lawmaker against making remarks capable of undermining the integrity of public institutions. They urged all lawmakers to remain guided by the Constitution and the Senate standing orders in the discharge of their duties.
Meanwhile, Mr Kyari, who is reportedly receiving medical treatment abroad, has reacted to the turn of events, describing the decision of the committee to issue an arrest warrant as deeply shocking. In a letter addressed to the committee chairman, he denied deliberately dodging the investigation. He explained that he had formally notified the committee in a letter dated May 11, 2026, that he was receiving medical treatment outside Nigeria and had expressed his willingness to honour the invitation upon his return.
ANN Politics
Tags
Opinion