An ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives’ which is investigating the allegation of illegal payment made by the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, Hammed Ali, has threatened to issue a warrant for his arrest if he refused to appear in person before the panel.

The committee headed by Adekunle Abdulkadir, had invited the Customs CG to explain why the service paid the sum of N250 million to an unlicensed firm as commission for insurance cover.

However, Ali did not appear in person, but sent Austin Warikoru, the Assistant Comptroller General in charge of resource development, to represent him.

Not satisfied with the CGs action, the committee turned Warikoru back, directing him to inform the Customs CG that he must appear in person on November 14 or the lawmakers would issue an arrest warrant on him.

The committee chair added that his committee had uncovered 57 other irregularities in payment of millions of naira allegedly by Customs to “non-existent insurance firms”, warning that no excuse would be entertained from the comptroller general.

Recall that last week, the House of Reps probe panel revealed that the sum of N250million commission on insurance cover was paid to Fortis Insurance.

However, the insurance company denied any such transaction with the Customs.

Its managing director, Lawrence Dafiode, in a letter to the panel, said that the firm was duly licensed in 2010 contrary to information available to the committee.