Reps Threaten To Issue Arrest Warrants Against BOA, ARCN Bosses For Shunning N1.2trn Probe

The House of Representatives Committee on Nutrition and Food Security, has threatened to issue a bench warrant of arrest against the Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Ayo Sontinrin, the Director-General of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Dr. Abubakar Adamu Dabban, for shunning its invites.

The committee’s chairman, Hon. Chike Okafor, issued the threat at the resumed investigative hearing on the alleged misuse of N1.2 trillion agricultural interventions funding, in Abuja on Tuesday.

The lawmaker warned that the warrant would be issued if they failed to appear at the committee’s investigative hearing.

He said: “The Committee held the maiden Investigative Hearing on 8th April, 2025 with the Central Bank of Nigeria in attendance led by Hamman Kwali John, Acting Director of the Finance Development Department, among other notable invitees.

“The 2nd Hearing held on 16th June, 2025 with the attendance of Central Bank of Nigeria and the Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs) still indebted to CBN under the Anchor Borrower Programme. Sterling Bank’s representative absorbed the bank from any indebtedness to which the CBN responded through a letter to the Committee dated June 25th, 2025 to affirm the position of Sterling Bank that it does not have any outstandings.

“As the investigations went on, including forensic auditing and evaluation, few organizations have proven their innocence by honouring the invitations of the Committee, appearing before the Hearings, opening up their books with details answers to our inquiries and going extra miles to show verifiable evidences to support their claim of non-involvement in misuse of agricultural funding. Such organizations will be commended in the Committee’s Report to the House, at the end of the investigations.

“On the other hand, the Committee wants to put it in the public know, that series of letters and invitations sent out to the following: the Bank of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, National Agricultural Land Development Council to appear before at the last two hearings of this Committee, were met with either no response or very flimsy excuses for non-attendance.

“This is totally unacceptable. The Bank of Agriculture only responded with the excuse of having a new Managing Director and I wrote back to the MD to say, that the bank is an ongoing concern, that having a new MD is not enough reason not to honour the invitation of this panel.

“I sincerely hope that the Bank of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria will be present tomorrow (Wednesday) because the public hearing continues tomorrow. We are not the police but this a quasi-judicial institution. If we don’t see them tomorrow, we would have to invoke all the powers of the parliament to make them appear before us,” Hon. Okafor stated.

Meanwhile, the Committee has demanded documents and correspondences between Prospect Micro-Finance Bank and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over the disagreement on the amount given to the Bank, the status of N6million recovered by the Bank from beneficiaries and other issues.

This followed a presentation before the Committee by the Managing Director (MD) of the Micro-Finance Bank, Mr Isaac Inwang, who informed the Committee that, N14.6 million was given to the Bank which were disbursed to 30 loultry farmers out of which N6million was recovered and kept with the Bank awaiting further instructions from the CBN.

However, the Central Bank faulted the claim of the bank, saying that N15.5 million was given to the it for the disbursement.

A CBN Deputy Director, Hassan Tom, stated that the Miicro-Finance Bank has breached the guidelines and extant laws which directed that all recovered funds must be returned to the CBN within a specified period, but the microfinance bank held on to the recovered funds for more than three years.

The Committee Chairman, therefore, directed the Micro-Finance Bank to provide the documents requested on Wednesday, November 19, and prepare to provide answers to some salient issues observed in their submissions and what the CBN said as reagrads to breach of the law and guidelines governing the disbursement of funds and recovery.