The House of Representatives Committee on Nutrition and Food Security has threatened to issue bench warrants for two top agricultural officials—Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Ayo Sontinrin, and Director-General of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Dr. Abubakar Dabban for repeatedly ignoring its summons.
The threat came during a resumed investigative hearing into the alleged misuse of ₦1.2 trillion allocated to various agricultural intervention programs.
According to the committee’s chairman, Hon. Chike Okafor, both BOA and ARCN have failed to respond appropriately to prior invitations, sending either no responses or “flimsy” excuses. He emphasized that a mere change in leadership (in the case of BOA) is not a valid justification for non-appearance.
The committee is demanding full disclosure of all internal records related to the use of the intervention funds. They also want to examine correspondence between Prospect Micro-Finance Bank and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over repayment issues, after a representative disclosed discrepancies in how funds were reported and recovered.
Okafor warned that failure to comply would trigger the full scope of the committee’s parliamentary powers, describing the situation as a “quasi-judicial proceeding” that must yield accountability.
