Kyari and the NUPRC chair have been given 24 hours by the Senate to provide defense for the budget

On Wednesday, Senator Adeola Olamilekan, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, sent Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), a 24-hour notice to come before the committee.

Olamilekan issued a warning that Kyari’s non-appearance would undermine the legislature and damage the process. Olamilekan asked Kyari to attend with the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

They must provide the daily total approved production output and a list of every single company operating in Nigeria under an OML licence.

The congressman voiced worries that the NNPCL, which he claimed belonged to the Federal Government and was therefore accountable to it and the other three branches of government, was to blame for some of the income needed to fund the 2024 budget.

The Senate had summoned the NNPCL to appear before its committee investigating the N11 trillion expenditure on turnaround maintenance of the nation’s refineries between 2010 and 2023, but the NNPCL had already turned down the request for a second time.

The Senate panel’s attempts to move forward with the probe were impeded by Kyari’s absence, whose entity is at the core of it.