The summon was issued during a public hearing on Wednesday by Mark Gbillah, the chairman of the committee looking into the alleged loss of $2.4 billion in revenue from the illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil.

Malami and Ahmed were invited by the committee last week to address the missing funds.

Gbillah had said it received reports that Malami — also the attorney general of the federation — received funds outside the country through the whistleblower policy, but did not remit it to the federation account.

He also said the minister of finance approved payments to whistleblowers which were not in accordance with what the policy stipulates.

The pair, however, avoided the committee and ignored the summon.

In a fresh invitation of the ministers on Wednesday, the chairman of the committee said a whistleblower informed the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) that Malami approved the payment of the $200 million to two private companies — Biz Plus and GSCL for “consultancy services.”

Gbillah claims that the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) is the conduit for the movement of money that is believed to be looted.

He labelled the development as “unconstitutional,” noting that the most recent summons would serve as the ministers’ last notice and that the committee might be compelled to use its legal authority to issue an arrest warrant.

“There was an incident about a whistleblower who made a formal report to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) about $200 million paid into two companies account Biz Plus, and GSCL allegedly for consultancy services, which allegedly were approved by the attorney general’s office on the approval of Mr. president,” Gbillah said.

“We have looked at the functions of the attorney general’s office and we have not seen any statutory powers provided for the attorney general by the constitution to determine how Nigeria’s money should be spent.

“We need the honourable minister of finance, and the attorney general of the federation to appear before this house to provide clarity on the inflows that have come in from whistleblowers’ recoveries, and about these monies that were recovered.”

The house set up the ad hoc committee in December 2022 to look into allegations made by a whistleblower that 48 million barrels of Bonny light crude were sold illegally to China in 2015.

Additionally, the committee was mandated to look into all of Nigeria’s sales and exports of crude oil from 2014 till date.