The Senate has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Seplat Energy, Network E&P Nigeria, All Grace Energy and Aradel Energy to appear before its Public Accounts Committee.

The directive followed the companies’ failure to attend Tuesday’s investigative hearing in Abuja to answer audit queries contained in reports reviewed by lawmakers.

The audit queries are contained in the 2021, 2022 and 2023 reports submitted by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).

Chairman of the committee, Abdul Ningi, criticised the absence of the affected companies, describing their conduct as disturbing and unacceptable.

Mr Ningi faulted a letter from one company that reportedly argued the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission remained its sole regulator.

He said the position reflected a misunderstanding of the Senate’s constitutional oversight powers and of obligations under Nigeria’s democratic framework.

“The Senate and, by extension, the National Assembly, is the custodian of Nigerian law and has power to invite anybody or agency,” Mr Ningi said.

He added that Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution empowered lawmakers to summon individuals, organisations and agencies for explanations on public matters.

Shehu Kaka urged the committee to invoke its constitutional powers against the defaulting firms if they continued to ignore invitations.

“Having failed to honour the invitation of this committee two consecutive times, the managing director of Network E&P Nigeria Ltd and others must appear. They should appear before us unfailingly on Thursday this week or risk full invocation of legislative powers against them,” Mr Kaka said.

Meanwhile, Dubri Oil Company appeared before the committee and defended a reported 3.25 million dollars in royalty and gas flare debt. A representative of the company, Soyode Olusoji, said the debt arose from reconciliation issues with NUPRC.

According to him, the audit report was prepared while discussions and reconciliations were still ongoing.

NEITI alleged, based on information submitted by NUPRC in 2025, that Dubri Oil owed $3.25 million. The audit report listed $2.378 million as gas flare liabilities and $ 646,605.55 as debts linked to oil production activities.

Mr Olusoji told the committee that the reconciliation process had since been concluded, and no outstanding debt remained against Dubri Oil. He submitted supporting documents to lawmakers and requested a thorough review before any decision was taken on the query.

The committee assured that all documents presented would be examined as part of its ongoing investigation into the audit findings.

(NAN)