The Attorney General Peter Nyombi on Friday afternoon survived being served an arrest warrant by parliament after he snubbed summons to appear before the legal and parliamentary affairs committee for a third time.
Twelve of the 14 committee members in attendance had moved that Nyombi be served with a warrant of arrest after he refused to appear and provide details of 11.9 funding for arbitration between Heritage Oil & Gas versus the Attorney General.
For close to a month, the committee chaired by Kajara County MP, Stephen Tashobya has been demanding that Nyombi produces nine oil sharing agreements government signed with the oil exploration companies. The agreements include the production sharing agreement of 2004; the 2011 memorandum of understanding between government, Uganda Revenue Authority and Tullow Oil Uganda; and a letter from government of Uganda authorizing Heritage Oil & Gas to conduct arbitration outside Uganda among others.
But the Attorney General has repeatedly refused to appear before the committee. He did not officially inform the MPs about his failure to appear on Friday, instead choosing to call the committee chairperson on phone telling him that he was leading a government delegation negotiating with Makerere University lecturers. The lecturers have been on strike, which led to the closure of the University two weeks ago.
But the angry MPs did not accept Nyombi’s informal communication. Shadow attorney general, Abdul Katuntu, who is a member of the committee said the Attorney General is a whole chamber with other senior legal officers who are supposed to represent their boss when he is away. Katuntu pointed out the deputy Attorney General and the Solicitor General as some of the officers who could represent Nyombi.
He accused Nyombi of acting in bad faith, in contempt of parliament and in contempt of the people of Uganda. Katuntu noted that Nyombi’s behaviour is unacceptable because the attorney general’s office committed the country in what he called terrible oil agreements.
Katuntu, supported by 11 other committee members, pushed Tashobya to issue an arrest warrant for the attorney general. Tashobya intervened and appealed to the legislators to allow Nyombi be given a final summon to appear next week.
Constitutionally, parliament has powers of a high court to summon witnesses when they are needed to help with investigations.
