By Taiye Oddewale
Abuja
Senate Committee on Finance yesterday turned back the representative of Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, Mrs. Folashade Odunuga, from its meeting where Kachikwu was expected to throw light on gas flaring penalty in 2017 revenue profile.
The minister, who failed to honour the invitation, was said to have directed a director in the Department of Petroleum Resources to represent him at the meeting.
When the Chairman of the Committee, Senator John Owan Enoh, asked Odunuga to introduce herself, she told the committee that she is the head of planning in the DPR delegated by her director to represent him.
A submission that angered the committee chairman, Senator John Enoh, who fired thus: “You mean we invited the minister of state to come here and the minister of state asked a director to represent him and the director in his wisdom asked you to represent him. This is unacceptable and we will not have you to represent any body
“It will be difficult to have you; the invitation to the minister was based on a directive of the Senate President for this important interaction which is necessary for the 2017 budget.”
Enoh also expressed displeasure that Kachikwu failed to communicate the committee that he would not be able to honour the invitation.
“We wrote the minister of state, there was no communication from him that a director will represent him. That simple courtesy was absent and lacking Communicate to your director to communicate to the minister that we refused to take you,” he said.
He, therefore, directed the clerk to the committee to write Kachikwu to appear before the committee on tomorrow.
