The Senate has commenced investigation into alleged breach of trust against the Federal Government by the Volkswagen Automobile Group.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff, Senator Hope Uzodinma, made this known while briefing newsmen in Abuja on Monday.
Uzodinma said that there were indications that the company was not assembling vehicles in Nigeria as it claimed.
According to him, the committee while on oversight visit to the plant in Lagos discovered a large number of vehicles in the company’s warehouses supposedly assembled and shipped into Nigeria.
It would be recalled that in 2015, the Volkswagen Group got the approval of government to partner Stallion Group, a private automobile company, to assemble Volkswagen brand of vehicles in Nigeria.
Uzodinma disclosed that during the inspection of the company’s facility, the committee discovered that no serious activity was noticed to suggest that the number of cars stored in the warehouses were assembled in its premises.
He said that such practice was contrary to the country’s automobile policy, which among other things put restrictions on foreign assembled vehicles.
He insisted that the discovery would be investigated and that if found to be true, “those responsible will be brought to book”.
The committee chairman explained that the restriction on foreign assembled vehicles was part of measures by the Federal Government to create jobs for Nigerians.
