By Ben Agande

ABUJA-Disagreement amongst members of the House of Representatives joint committees investigating the alleged indebtedness of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to the Federation Account to the tune of N450 billion, Thursday, almost marred proceedings.

Some members had staged a walk-out to protest perceived harassment of the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives, Mrs Zainab Ahmed by Rep. Muraina Ajibola.

Trouble started shortly after Mrs Ahmed had made a presentation on the audit report on NNPC when members led by Rep. Sunday Ifedayo protested the line of questioning of Ajibola who is one of the co-chairmen of the investigating committees. They accused the leadership of the joint committees of bias in favour of NNPC.

Apparently to forestall a possible collapse of the hearing, leadership of the House of Representatives had to deploy one of the principal officers of the House, Mr. Sumaila Kawu, who is the Deputy Minority Leader “to ensure that members conduct themselves in the way they are supposed to.”

Mrs. Ahmed was asked by the presiding chairman of the committees, Rep. Abdulmumuni to provide clarifications on some the allegations she had levelled against NNPC when the chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), Rep. Muraina Ajibola’s questions generated heated reactions from members of the committees who accused one of the co-chairmen of pursuing a personal agenda.

Some members who spoke with Vanguard after the session insinuated that some members of the committee may have been compromised judging from their conducts within and outside the hearing.