ABUJA, March 06, (THEWILL) – The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts, Wednesday, threatened the former Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili, with arrest and prosecution should she fail to return vehicles belonging to the ministry in her possession within one week.

Also to return government vehicles or face similar treatment are a former Minister of State in the Ministry, Alhaji Ikra Bilbis, and the Permanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Engr Anthony Ozodinobi. The vehicles were said to have been attached to them while they held forte in the ministry.

The vehicles in question are four Toyota Hillux Double Cabin pick-up vans.

Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Adeola Solomon Olamilekan, who handed down the order after hearing the submission of the officials of the Ministry led by its Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Kehinde Ajoni, who appeared before the Committee over the queries raised against the Ministry by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, said all efforts to retrieve the vehicles from the former officials since 2010 had proved abortive.

The Committee therefore threatened that failure on the part of any of them to comply with the directive would lead to their being dragged before the court and charged for stealing of government properties in accordance with the law of the land.

“This is unacceptable, they should all return the vehicles in question within one week; failure of which they will be charged to court for stealing. The secretariat should write the three of them immediately to convey the decision of this Committee to them. The evidence before us showed that several letters had been written to them on the need for them to return the vehicles which they ignored,” Olamilekan said.

Permanent Secretary, Ajoni, had told the Committee that the ministry had made spirited efforts to recover the vehicles but Akunyili only returned one out of the two in her possession, while Bilbis and Ozodinobi held on to the ones in their possession.

She disclosed that the vehicles in question were for the National Telephony Project and they belong to the Ministry. The vehicles were said to have been attached to the affected ex-officials and the auditors discovered that they were missing during auditor routine checks.

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