Senate Summons CAC Registrar for Shunning Budget Defence Session

•Akpabio declares two Senatorial districts’ seats vacant 

•Swears in Lalong as Senator

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The Senate Committee on Finance, Chaired by Senator Sani Musa has mandated the Inspector General of Police to compel the Registrar General (RG) of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Ishaq Hussain Magaji, to appear before it within 24 hours.

Musa, gave the order yesterday, when the Registrar General refused to honour the invitation of the Committee for the third time.

The RG was expected to appear to defend the Commission’s 2024 budget, but some financial discrepancies were spotted by the Committee in the book of accounts submitted.

The panel said he needed further explanation, a development that seemed to have scared the CAC boss from appearing before the Committee.

The four senior officials of the CAC having confirmed several letter of invitation by the Clerk of the Senate Committee on Finance could not explain reasons RG’s absence before the panel.

Reacting, Senator Abdul Ningi advised the CAC officials not to come back without the RG, urging them to let the CAC face the heat and explain how the spent money in the agency.

Ningi said, “Mr. Chairman, it is imperative to understand where they are coming from that this is not the first time they are appearing before the Committee.

“There was a deliberate discussion with you that there was discrepancies in revenue generation and expenditure by the Corporate Affairs Commission and we said, the Registrar General should be here. 

“Yet you are here and you probably told him that you can do the job.  Even if you can do the job, this job is not for you please.  Don’t take the bullet that is meant for him”.

“In his ruling after reactions by the Committee members, Sani Musa said: “With all sense of humility, the Corporate Affairs Registrar General has disregarded this Committee.

“Distinguished Colleagues, Corporate Affairs Commission was present when we treated MTEF/FSP and the Director of Finance were here.  We saw discrepancies and we told you to go and come back. 

“You have your book keepers; you have your records and we asked you to go and tidy up and report back, but you never did.

“I have cause to tell the Secretariat to send you a letter to appear here.  When you came, you said the Registrar General just fell ill, I excused you expecting you are going to come back with documents requested. 

“You know what the financial regulation of this country is.  I had cause to tell the Committee Secretariat to write you again and you are here without the RG. 

“You are the custodian of finances of the Corporate Affairs Commission and there are discrepancies. 

“How many entities are registered in this country.  How many?  How much were you reporting there and you are taking us with levity.

“I am invoking Section 89(2) mandating the Inspector General of Police to compel appearance of the Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission before the Senate Committee on Finance within 24 hours.”

Meanwhile, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, during plenary yesterday, declared vacant, the seats of Ebonyi South and Yobe East Senatorial Districts.

The seats became vacant following appointments of David Umahi and Ibrahim Geidam as Ministers of Work and Police Affairs respectively.

Since their appointments as Ministers, the two Senatorial Districts have been left unrepresented at the upper chamber.

Akpabio, during plenary, called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct by-elections in the two senatorial districts for representation at the upper chamber.

“INEC may therefore wish to commence the process of conducting by-elections to fill the vacancies immediately” the senate president said.

In the meantime, former Minister of Labour Employment and Productivity, Simon Lalong, has been sworn in as a member of the 10th Senate.

Lalong was sworn in during plenary by the President of the Senate.

The former governor of Plateau State took the oath of office about 11.57am on the floor of the Senate.

Akpabio immediately congratulated Lalong, a former Governor of Plateau State, and the Director-General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Campaigns during the 2023 presidential poll that produced President Bola Tinubu.

Lalong would represent Plateau-South on the platform of the APC.

Lalong, a former Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, had tendered his resignation to President Tinubu earlier on Tuesday.

Speaking soon after his inauguration, Lalong said he actually wanted to be a senator after he served his tenure out as governor in May, 2023.

“This was my first choice, to be candid”, he stated.

According to him, he opted to hold the position of a minister in the interim and on the invitation of Tinubu because he had a case he was pursuing at the court.

Lalong, promised to do his best to serve his electorate to his human abilities.

Also reacting to the inauguration, the National Chairman of the APC, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje, described it as a moment of happiness.

“This is a moment of happiness. We are so happy that he won at the Court of Appeal.

“What Nigerians will expect is good legislation. As we know the APC has the majority and will work for the prosperity of all Nigerians,” Ganduje added.

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, had on November, 7, upheld the judgment of the lower tribunal, which declared Lalong the winner of the Plateau-South Senatorial District election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) initially declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Napoleon Bali, as the winner.

Bali, had scored 148,844 votes, while Lalong recorded 91,674, according to INEC.

Lalong, had challenged the result on the grounds that the PDP had no proper structures in the state on which a candidate could contest for an election.