Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has approved the issuance of arrest warrant and criminal prosecution against the Acting Chairman, Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mr. Shettima Umar-Gana.
Chairman of the House ad hoc committee investigating data collection processes, verification and usage by RMAFC, Mark Gbillah (PDP, Benue), announced this during the Committee’s public hearing in Abuja on Tuesday.
Gbillah said the move followed deliberate disobedience and refusal by Umar-Gana to honour the constitutional requests of the committee for information, which has delayed the progress of its investigation, in clear breach of Section 4 of Legislative Powers and Privileges Act.
He also described as “condemnable and unlawful” Umar-Gana’s official instruction, via correspondence, to other tiers of government not to honour the committee’s invitation and requests for vital information that would have aided its assignment.
According to him, the committee would not be deterred from carrying out its critical mandate in the interest of Nigerians, and in line with the legislature’s culture of transparency, accountability and fair hearing, as enshrined in Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution.
“In line with the provisions of Section 89(1)(d) of the 1999 Constitution and Section 11(a)(b) of the Legislative Powers and Previleges, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has approved the initiation of statutory sanctions, issuance of arrest warrant and criminal prosecution, against the Acting Chairman of RMAFC, Shettima Umar-Gana.
“We will not hesitate to approve same against any party who refuses to honour the constitutional requests of the committee.”
“We will not be deterred from carrying out this very critical patriotic mandate, which is in the interest of Nigeria and her citizens, and in line with the National Assembly’s culture of transparency, accountability and fair hearing,” Gbillah said.
The lawmaker claimed that RMAFC’s failure to undertake a review of the 2012 Horizontal and Vertical Allocation Sharing Formula after over five years, had stifled equitable revenue allocation formula, and by so doing, good governance.
The review, he argued, had become necessary given the impending implementation of the new N30,000 minimum wage across the 36 states and 774 LGAs of the federation.
He described the public hearing as a platform to avail relevant stakeholders an opportunity to articulate facts and enable the committee inspect and verify data to ensure the adoption of appropriate, equitable revenue allocation formula based on accurate indices, and devoid of bias.
The RMAFC is a federal government agency saddled with the responsibility of collection and maintenance of the integrity of data used for the computation of indices for sharing revenues via the Federation Account, and in respect with the 13 per cent Derivation Funds for oil producing areas.
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