The Senate Adhoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution has said that it will release the schedule of events for the forthcoming public hearings on amendment of the constitution by next week.
This is even as the subcommittees of the panel are expected to submit their reports by next week.
Chairman of the committee and deputy president of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, stated this Thursday at the National Assembly, Abuja when the Steering Committee of the Constitution Review panel hosted the Eminent Elders Forum, led by Professor Echefuna Onyeabadi.
Senator Omo-Agege urged Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora who have already submitted their memoranda to the panel to be prepared to speak to such documents at the forthcoming event.
“By next week, our schedule of events for the public hearings will be made public. We will have a national public hearing very soon. And thereafter we will have the zonal public hearings. In some of the zones, we decided that we will have at least two zonal hearings,” he said.
He revealed that all the subcommittees earlier constituted would submit their reports to the ad hoc committee by next week.
“All memoranda must have been considered by our subcommittees. In about a week, they will make returns to us, having perused thoroughly the contents of submissions by others.
Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Finance has invited the Auditor General of the Federation, Mr. Aghughu Arhotomhenia, to appear before it next week Tuesday to explain why his office has not given guidelines for the auditing of the accounts of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).
Chairman of the committee, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (APC Lagos West ), gave the directive Thursday when the Controller General of Immigration, Mr. Mohammed Babandede appeared before the committee.
He said the summoning was sequel to the refusal of the Auditor General to provide the required guidelines for auditing of NIS despite repeated letters for that purpose from Immigration Service .
In the course of investigative hearing the committee had with the NIS boss on remittances of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), the chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission ( FRC) , Barrister Victor Muruako told the committee that his agency had not received the audited accounts of NIS since 2017 contrary to the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 among other infractions.
In his response, Mr. Babandede stated that there have been no guidelines from Auditor General’s Office despite repeated official requests from the NIS adding that the unaudited accounts over the years had just been launched by the Minister of Interior.
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