The House of Representatives ad hoc committee probing the retirement of over 1000 staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has begun the exercise with the promise that it will be fair to all parties involved in the matter.

The Chairman of the Committee, Bello Kumo, made this known at the commencement of the hearing on the matter at the National Assembly Complex on Friday in Abuja.

He expressed dismay with the failure of the CBN governor, Yemi Cardoso and Minister for Labour and Employment, Muhammadu Dingyadi.

The hearing was initially scheduled to hold on Wednesday but had to be moved to Thursday due to the 2025 budget presentation ceremony by President Bola Tinubu.

The lawmaker commended the representative of the Federal Character Commission for appearing promptly at the investigation.

The chairman, however, warned that the committee would be left with no choice but to sanction government officials who failed to honour the committee’s invitation.

He said a new date for the hearing would be communicated to them in due course.

“We are guided by our laws. We will not allow anybody to take us for granted. Let me be clear on this, any day we fix again and any of the organisations that refuse to show up, we will apply the law.

“The committee would not shirk its responsibility in not only ensuring fair hearing to all parties involved in the saga,” he said.

While declaring open the exercise, Speaker Tajudeen Abbas acknowledged that the impact of the CBN action would be felt by not only the individual workers affected and their families but the whole country.

He charged the committee to do due diligence on ascertaining the formulae used in computing the N50 billion pay-off amount to the affected workers.

Abbas urged the committee to ensure due process charging them to ensure that the decision to relieve the workers of their jobs aligns with global best practices and extant provisions of the law.