The house of representatives committee on financial crimes has asked Ola Olukoyede, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to appear before it on or before July 30 over budgetary allocation issues.

Obinna Onwusibe, chair of the committee, issued the notice after an oversight function at the EFCC headquarters in Jabi, Abuja.

Onwusibe expressed displeasure over Olukoyede’s absence despite formal notification of the oversight.

NAN also reports that the committee members were denied access to the commission’s complex.

An official of the commission had informed the lawmakers that the EFCC chair was summoned to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) but no further details were provided.

Reacting, the committee chairman said: “In performing our constitutional functions, we had written to the EFCC for this oversight visit.

“The latest letter to EFCC was last week and we all agreed that the oversight is going to be today.

“The purpose was to review EFCC’s budget performance as appropriated by the National Assembly and to assess other matters, including their challenges.

“To our surprise, we found only subordinate staff present, not the chairman or the zonal commanders we requested.

“The committee decided to suspend the oversight and has resolved to summon the EFCC Chairman and his team to appear before us by next Tuesday. He will receive an official letter inviting him to face the committee.

“The integrity and functions of the 10th National Assembly are paramount to us. We have repeatedly requested information and documents from the commission without adequate response, a matter I intended to address today.

“We expect EFCC to comply and appear before us on Tuesday for further discussions.”

Kayode Egbetokun, inspector-general of police (IGP), says the police have “credible intelligence” that foreign mercenaries are involved in the planned nationwide protest.

Egbetokun spoke in Abuja on Friday at a press conference.

The police command in the federal capital territory (FCT) has deployed 4,200 officers ahead of a nationwide protest scheduled for August.

Tagged ’10 Days of Rage’ by organisers, the marches will reportedly commence on August 1.

In a statement on Friday, Josephine Adeh, FCT police spokesperson, said the deployment of the officers is “aimed at ensuring public safety, protection of protesters, and preventing protests from being hijacked by non-state actors”.

Adeh said Benneth Igweh, FCT police spokesperson, has assured residents that officers will protect lives and property and not condone violence.

She urged residents to report any suspicious movements and remain vigilant.

“The FCT Police Command, in anticipation of the planned nationwide protest by some human rights activists and Nigerian youths to publicly express their displeasure over hunger and hardship, has proactively deployed material and human resources at the command’s disposal across the nooks and crannies of the nation’s capital,” the statement reads.

“The proactive deployment, which is aimed at ensuring public safety, protection of protesters, and preventing protests from being hijacked by non-state actors, is characterised by visibility policing, the deployment of explosive ordinance devices (EOD) experts and personnel at various strategic locations, raids on identified black spots, uncompleted buildings/shanties, stop and search, vehicular and foot patrol and synergy with sister security agencies.”