By Gift ChapiOdekina

The House of Representatives tripartite committees investigating the implementation of corporate social responsibility by multinational oil companies and  other corporate bodies in the South-South have threatened to issue warrant of arrests on the headship of the companies that failed to honour their summons.

Chairman of the tripartite committees, Professor Obiageli Lilian Orogbu, frowned on the failure of some major oil companies to attend the investigative hearing which held in Abuja.

Professor Orogbu warned that she and her co-chairmen as well as the entire members of the committees would not hesitate to deal with any organization that failed to respect the investigative panel.

“The House has asked us to carry out this exercise based on quantum of petitions from host communities against most of you and we will not take kindly to any organization that decides to undermine this assignment,”  she warned.

Orogbu, who had in her opening remarks emphasized that the essence of the investigative hearing was borne out of genuine intention of the parliament to see that corporate bodies operating in Nigeria kept to the best practices of corporate and environmental behaviours within their host communities, acknowledged that reports at the disposal of the parliament showed that a lot of the companies were lagging behind in this regard.

She said:  “We want to see a change and also ensure that what you do as corporate social responsibility to your hosts are commensurate with the level of businesses you do.

”Some of you observe corporate social responsibility in other countries you operate but you fail to do same here because nobody cares.

“We want a new Nigeria and we need you to work together with the government to rebuild this country. I know that some of you are doing quite well but there are many of you that are not responsible enough.”

Members were also not happy that the companies that attended the hearing didn’t come with the evidences of what they had done for their host communities.

For that reason, the meeting was rescheduled to another date which will be communicated to them by the secretariat.

The committees involved in the investigative hearing are the corporate social responsibility, Niger Delta Development Commission and that of host communities.

The companies that attended the hearing included Dubri Oil company, Lee Engineering, Equinor Oil, Famfa oil,  ?Sahara Group , Network E&P Ltd, Monipulo Ltd, GereenVille LNG,  ?Chirus Energy, Seplat Energy, Roviigs Ltd, and Chevron.