House of Reps chides NNPC, Julius Berger for refusal to respond to summons
By Our Reporter
The attitude of the management of both Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and Julius Berger Plc towards invitations from the House of Representatives has drawn the ire of the members.
Expressing her disappointment at plenary Tuesday, the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, who was presiding, ordered the clerk of the House to immediately convey her feelings to the management of the two organisations and invite them to meet with the leadership of the House.
This was in reaction to reports from the committee on Public Petitions on the attitude of the organisations towards summons from the committee to answer to issues arising from the public against them.
“Despite several invitations, both NNPC and Julius Berger refused to show up to state their own side of the story,” Mike Etaba, House Committee Chairman on Public Petitions reported.
Several honourable members expressed their anger that the attitude of the organisations fall short of international best practices and called on the leadership of the House to check the excesses of the organisations.
The cases in question were issues of wrongful termination of appointments by two different staff of the organisations.
Umoh Edet Okon was allegedly sacked wrongfully by Julius Berger and the Committee recommended reinstatement, full payment of entitlements or pay off with full benefits. In the case of Joseph Andrew and NNPC, the Committee noted that he was sacked out of victimisation and recommended reinstatement with full entitlements or pay off with full benefits.
