The House of Representatives has threatened to order the arrest of the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Bisoye Coker-Odusote.
The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions issued the threat in a statement issued by the Head, Media/Public Petitions Committee, House of Representatives, Chooks Oko, on Wednesday in Abuja.
The committee said it would actualise the threat if Coker-Odusote failed to come in person to answer charges on refusal to pay for a state-of-the-art software development project.
Chairman of the committee, Mike Etaba frowned at the continuous absence of the NIMC director-general despite several invitations.
“If she fails to show up at the next hearing of this case, we’ll have no option than to ask the Inspector-General of Police to bring her.
“How can an official of government treat constituted authority with such levity? We can no longer condone such attitude,” he said.
The project was installed and deployed to the commission by a private firm, Truid Limited, which was alleging a breach of licence agreement by NIMC.
According to E. R. Opara, counsel to Truid Limited, the agreement is premised on an arrangement that the project would be funded by the firm.
“Truid was to get returns on her investment through patronage of service providers and the proceeds shared on an agreed ratio.
“This was to run for an initial period of 10 years, from 2021 when the software was deployed,” Opara said.