Senate Rejects Kachikwu’s Rep At Gas Meeting

The committee had invited Kachikwu to a meeting with the lawmakers on gas flaring penalty in the 2017 revenue profile.

The Senate Committee on Finance, on Tuesday, refused to grant audience to the representative of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, Mrs. Folashade Odunuga, at its meeting.

The minister, however, sent a director in the Department of Petroleum Resources to represent him at the meeting.

When the Chairman of the committee, Senator John Enoh, asked Odunuga to introduce herself and she told the lawmakers that she was the Head of Planning in the DPR. 

Odunuga said she was asked by her director to represent him.

In his reaction, Enoh expressed his anger over the representation, saying, “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 inform the lawmakers that he would not be able to honour their invitation.

He said, “(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.”

Enoh directed the Clerk to the committee to write Kachikwu to appear before the committee on Thursday.