Nigerian state governors are to look into why potentially billions of dollars in oil revenue were allegedly not paid into government coffers, as part of a wider probe into the state-run oil firm.
A four-man panel will seek answers from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) about apparent discrepancies in its accounts, as well as alleged plundering from a reserve account.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari last week dismissed the entire board of the NNPC, which is widely seen as riddled with corruption, and has given his approval for the governors’ investigation. The governor of southern Edo state, Adams Oshiomhole, told reporters in Abuja on Monday evening the panel will look at NNPC accounts on crude oil sales between 2012 and May this year.
“The NNPC claimed to have earned 8.1 trillion naira ($40 billion, 36 billion euros), what NNPC paid into the Federation Account… was 4.3 trillion naira,” he said. “What it means is that NNPC withheld and spent 3.8 trillion naira… That tells you how much is missing, what is mismanaged, what is stolen. These are huge figures,” he alleged.
The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, last year claimed $20 billion in oil revenue had not been remitted from 2012 to 2014. The government of former president Goodluck Jonathan disputed the figures and in the political row that followed, Sanusi was dismissed.
Oshiomhole said the panel would also look into a massive dip in Nigeria’s excess crude account, into which the difference between government-set oil prices and the international rate is deposited. He said the “rainy day” account has plunged to $2 billion from $4.1 billion in November 2014.
‘Sickening rot’
The spokesman for Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) party, Lai Mohammed, told reporters in Lagos on Tuesday that the excess crude account fund had been depleted “without explanation”.
“The rot met by the Buhari administration is sickening and the president is working hard to plug all loopholes for siphoning public funds, in addition to recovering looted public funds,” he added. “This is just the beginning of the fight against corruption. Nigerians should grab front-row seats so they can watch clearly as events unfold in the ring of (the) anti-corruption fight in the days ahead.
“It will no longer be business as usual as the Buhari administration seeks to make sure that every kobo (0.01 naira) of national funds is spent for the benefit of Nigerians, not to fill the deep pockets of a few fat cats.” Buhari, a former military ruler with a reputation for a hard line against graft and “indiscipline”, took office on May 29 after defeating Jonathan in elections in March.
The 72-year-old has vowed to tackle corruption and particularly the rot in the oil sector, which provides Nigeria — Africa’s biggest crude producer — with the majority of government revenue. A slump in global oil prices since mid-2014 has squeezed Nigeria’s economy, forcing government projects to be put on hold or scrapped and led to a review of this year’s budget.
Many public sector workers have not been paid for months and last week Buhari said Jonathan’s administration had left the treasury “virtually empty”. Buhari has been advised to overhaul the NNPC and scrap a scheme that ensures cheap fuel at the pumps but pays importers and suppliers the difference in the market rate.
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