The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has threatened to issue an arrest warrant for the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bayo Ojulari, over his failure to appear before the committee regarding an alleged N210 trillion fraud.

During a session in Abuja on Thursday, the committee, chaired by Senator Ahmed Wadada, expressed deep displeasure over the absence of NNPCL officials.

The committee had summoned them to respond to audit queries concerning the unaccounted N210 trillion reportedly missing from the company’s records between 2017 and 2023.

Instead of appearing in person, the NNPCL, through a letter signed by Adedapo Segun on behalf of the GCEO, requested an additional two months to prepare a comprehensive response. The letter was read aloud to the committee by the clerk, Sani Abdullahi.

Rejecting the request, Senator Wadada described the absence of the NNPCL team as unacceptable.

“We expected representatives from the NNPCL to be before us today to answer questions thrown at them last week on issues or queries raised in the audit reports before us,” Wadada said.

“Their absence is unacceptable and as a result, this committee is giving the relevant officials from NNPCL ten working days from today, which ends on July 10,” he added.

According to Wadada, the committee was not expecting additional documents but direct answers to eleven specific questions previously posed.

“This committee was not expecting any documents from NNPCL today but answers to the eleven questions thrown at its representatives last week. Therefore, the GCEO of NNPCL must appear before us on July 10 for the expected answers,” he declared.

Wadada further warned that failure to comply would trigger the committee’s constitutional powers to compel Ojulari’s appearance.

“The failure to appear on the scheduled date would leave the committee with no choice but to invoke and assert all its constitutional powers to compel the GCEO’s appearance,” he said.

The chairman also noted that other government bodies—specifically the FCT High Court and the Federal Ministries of Solid Minerals, Steel Development, and Finance—risk facing similar action if they fail to honour their summons.

“These agencies are the FCT High Court and the Federal Ministries of Solid Minerals, Steel Development, and Finance. If they fail to appear before the committee on Tuesday next week, they will hear from us,” Wadada stated.