The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions has issued arrest warrants against officials of Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) Nigeria and Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A., Geneva, following repeated failure to honour its invitations to answer questions bothering on alleged tax evasion leveled against it by a group called Citizens Whistleblowers Coalition.
The Committee had earlier invoked Sections 89 (c) and (d) of the Constitution as amended, ordered the Inspector-General of Police to compel the Managing Director, Andrew Lynch, and the Deputy Managing Director, Jake Iosso, to appear before it.
It also ordered the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) to furnish it with details of the tax remittances of the global shipping giant to the Nigerian government, and that the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) should also furnish it with the details of the corporate registration of Mediterranean Shipping Company in Nigeria.
The group’s lawyer, Hon. Uzoma Abonta, in his presentation to the Committee, noted that MSC operates in flagrant disregard to Nigerian laws and institutions and urged the Committee to compel MSC to appear before the parliament, failing which their license to operate in Nigeria should be suspended.
He asked urged the Committee to also issue similar summon to the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Nigerian Customs Services (NCS) and other regulatory agencies in the maritime sector.