FOREIGN LOANS: Reps committee adjourns, set to grill Justice, Finance Ministry officials

The House of Representatives Committee on Treaties, Protocols and Agreements has adjourned sitting for one week to enable members scrutinise documents already submitted to it by the Debt Management Office (DMO).

The Chairman of the committee, Nicholas Ossai, announced this at a brief sitting on Tuesday, adding that the Ministry of Justice, and the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed would also be invited to shed more light on the agreements Nigeria signed for the loans contracts under scrutiny, especially the now controversial sovereign immunity clause.

Ossai, who led members of the panel into the venue about one hour behind schedule, called for the adjournment after the opening prayers.

According to him, the lawmakers needed to scrutinise the documents already presented to the committee, while the panel would also demand explanations from the Federal Ministry of Justice.

He said: “You are aware that I, as the chairman of this committee, will not ambush my colleagues in terms of new documents submitted. We need to digest most of these documents and go through the documents clause by clause.

“There is also an important office in this country that has been part of the negotiating team, which is the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice has been reached. They need to be part of this because of the revelations that are coming up now on most of these clauses. And these are the people who were supposed to have seen the clauses embedded in the documents. So, we also need the Ministry of Justice to be able to interface with them.

“More importantly, we also need the Minister of Finance, who was supposed to be here. The ministry signed most of these agreements with other countries.

“So, I am seeking the indulgence and the permission of my committee members to begin to look at this issue and probably adjourn for one week, to enable us to digest this matter and re-invite the honourable ministers that are here and those that are not here, so that we can conclude this matter as soon as possible, so that we can make our recommendation to the National Assembly.”

The committee, therefore, resolved to adjourn till Tuesday.