Reps Summon FIRS Chairman Over Alleged Tax Evasion By Oil Companies

The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee Investigating the Structure and Accountability of the Joint Venture Businesses and Production Sharing Contracts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation from 1990 to Date on Tuesday summoned the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Muhammad Nami, over an alleged tax invasion by oil companies in the country.

The Chairman of the committee, Abubakar Fulata, invited the FIRS chairman during the panel’s sitting in Abuja.

The committee decided that Nami must personally appear to the lawmakers following a claim that the FIRS was collaborating with oil companies to evade payment of tax running into trillions of Naira.

The panel directed the Clerk of the House, Yahaya Danzaria, to write the FIRS chairman, threatening to issue an arrest warrant against him if he fails to appear at the next hearing slated for December 7.

The Nigerian Agip Oil Company, Famfa Oil Limited, Pan Ocean, New Cross Exploration, New Cross Petroleum, GEC Petroleum Development Company, Enageed Resources Ltd, Ten-Oil Petroleum Energy Ltd, Sahara Energy Resources Ltd, and Millennium Oil and Gas Limited are also expected to testify before the committee on the same day.