As governors of Nigeria’s 36 states meet today to discuss the withdrawal of N250 billion from the Federation Account by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulation Authority (PPPRA) in the September allocation, the House of Representatives will tomorrow commence investigations into the withdrawal of N450 billion by the NNPC and PPPRA in the August allocations.
Accordingly, the House’s Joint Investigation Committee (JIC) comprising of the House Committee on Finance and the Committees on Petroleum (Upstream and Downstream) and Gas will investigate the activities of the NNPC, PPPRA and all other agencies under the Federal Ministry of Petroleum.
The JIC is under the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Hon. Abduallmuni Jibrin.
An insider in the JIC told local newspaper THISDAY that the investigation would seek to unearth why the NNPC and the PPPRA unilaterally withdrew funds from the Federation Accounts and Allocations Committee (FAAC) without due approval from the relevant quarters, especially the National Assembly.
Apart from the JIC’s investigation of the N450 billion withdrawals, the House will also cast its searchlight on the N1.2 trillion withdrawn earlier by the PPPRA from the Federation Account.
A member of the JIC told the newspaper that over 1,000 petitions and memoranda have “so far been received by the Committee” with regard to the withdrawals.
The source also said that a cursory look at the petitions received from members of the public show that there are a lot of financial irregularities in the accounts of both the NNPC and the PPPRA.
“We have received more than 1,000 petitions and these petitions are eye boggling and series of cans of worms ranging from diversion of funds and round-tripping and allegations of under valuation of signature bonuses by the NNPC”, the source said.
The NNPC and PPPRA had removed the money as subsidy recovery from the funds available for sharing among the three tiers of government.
This had generated some controversy as to the propriety of the actions of both agencies and some members of the public equally chided both the NNPC and the PPPRA over the withdrawals.
Piqued by the development, the organisations quickly beat a retreat and agreed to refund the deductions, but on a piecemeal basis.
The NNPC, however, went a step further last week when it said it had resolved to stay action on further recoveries of the backlog of subsidies from the Federation Account to prevent a face-off with states.
Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Lawan Ngama, who doubles as the chairman of FAAC, said in a statement that the NNPC agreed to stop the intended deduction after due consultations.
“After due consultations between the Minister of State for Finance and chairman of the Federation Account Allocation Committee, Dr. Yerima Lawan Ngama, the management of NNPC on Wednesday agreed to stay action on further recovery on the backlog of subsidies due it from the Federation Account,” the minister said.
