THE Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Treaties, Protocols, and Agreement, Ossai Nicholas Ossai, has said that the committee is probing Chinese loans obtained by the Federal Government since 2000 to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria and the future of generations unborn.
Ossai, representing the Peoples Democratic Party (Delta), said this in a statement on Tuesday while calling on those politicizing the Committee’s assignment to retrace their steps in the spirit of national interest and security.
His clarification was in response to a statement credited to a House of Representatives member, representing PDP, Osun, Wole Oke, which faulted the investigative hearing on the bilateral agreements between Nigeria and China.
Oke had alleged that the Committee was functioning outside its mandate.
The Committee chairman, however, faulted Oke’s statement, describing it as false in its entirety, unparliamentarily, and unpatriotic.
According to him, the statement does not in any way reflect the trueness of the Committee’s mandate and productive outcomes the House Committee has recorded through its legislative oversight engagements on the subject matter.
He said, “The Committee will like to clarify that Hon. Wole Oke is not a member of the House Committee on Treaties, Protocols, and Agreements; and thus may not be well acquainted with the mandate of the Committee with respect to the on-going public hearing on the bilateral agreements between Nigeria and China, including the unique oversight technique adopted by the Committee to achieve its goals.
“Contrary to the Honourable Member’s claims, the House Committee on Treaties, Protocols, And Agreements is a statutory Standing Committee of the House of Reps, established in the spirit of sections 62(1) and 12 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), with powers as prescribed in sections 88 and 89 of the constitution, guided by the mandate/jurisdiction as provided in the Standing Order of the House of Reps, especially Order 18(B), Rule 93.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the specific mandates of the Committee with respect to the current public hearing was pursuant to House Resolution no (87/09/2019) vide a Motion on ‘Transmission of all Treaties and Bilateral/Contractual Agreements by all Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to the National Assembly.’”
