ABUJA -. By Olusegun Lawrence Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has been accused of perpetrating a whopping N10trillion fraud in the last decade – 2006 to 2016.
The Senate through its committees on Petroleum (upstream and downstream) and Gas, made the allegations at the weekend.
According to the chairman, Committee on Petroleum Downstream, Senator Kabiru Marafa, the fraud which started during the regimes of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, through Umar Musa Yar’Adua to Goodluck Jonathan, is still ongoing under Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Marafa told newsmen that out of the N10 trillion alleged fraud, NNPC alone is to account for N5.2 trillion it collected as subsidy from the federal government of Nigeria for importation of Petroleum Products particularly Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol or fuel between 2006 and 2016.
It is also to account for 445,000 barrels of crude oil allocated to it on yearly basis for the Nation’s refineries for local consumption.
According to him, “NNPC being the custodian of Crude oil resources of the Nation, responsible for 51% of Petroleum Products importation into the country over the years aside the 445,000 crude allocation it gives itself on yearly basis for sales for local refining, must account for the N5.2trillion available records show that it has spent on subsidy on its own 51% of petroleum products importation between 2006 and 2016 aside the N3.8trillion spent on similar subsidy for Independent Marketers and about $1.5billion yet to be accounted for by other key players in the industry”, he said.
Marafa added that the committee uncovered disappearance of PMS from storages leased by NNPC without any accountability, adding that 100 million litres of PMS worth N14billion were stolen by two different companies without any sanction against them yet from the NNPC.
His words, “This committee has established the missing of 100million litres of PMS from such storage arrangement. We expected NNPC to have taken action against the two companies that carried out the theft but since it has not, we hereby ordered it to do so immediately, precisely within this week failure of which we shall make the whole details known to the public.”
Marafa said the Senate Joint Committee oil industry has resolved to carry out thorough investigation on the alleged fraud and bring the perpetrators to book.
He stated that “President Buhari is highly supportive of this move by the Senate and we shall not fail in carrying out the needed holistic investigation on obvious sharp practices in the sector. Needed documents for the onerous task are already in our possession.”
