Kogi State House of Assembly has threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against the chief executive officer of Sterling Bank Plc, Abubakar Suleiman, if he fails to appear before it on November 16.
The House had on November 2 invited Mr Suleiman to clarify issues around the controversial N20 billion bailout fund for Kogi which the bank claimed it would send back to the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Kogi commissioner for finance, Asiru Idris; state accountant general, Jibril Momoh; and auditor general, Yakubu Okala appeared before the House on November 2 over the issue.
But on resumption of plenary on Tuesday, the regional manager of Sterling Bank, Enejo Ibrahim; and counsel to the bank, Olukayode Enitan were at the House to represent Suleiman. Mr Enitan said Suleiman got the invitation late.
Speaker Matthew Kolawole, at a Committee of the Whole, insisted that the representatives would not be allowed to speak except they tendered a letter from the managing director authorising them to represent him.
Kolawole gave the bank’s chief executive officer till November 16 to appear before it, saying that any attempt to dishonour the invitation would make the House to apply every legal means to coerce appearance.
He pointed out that reports that the state government fixed the bailout fund meant for payment of salary arrears for civil servants, in an account with the bank had brought embarrassment to the government and people of Kogi.
Kolawole said investigations by the House committee on public accounts, revealed that the allegations were baseless.