Reps Order Arrest of NNPC Boss, Others over N142.7Bn Debt

House of Representatives Committee on Finance has said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) owes the Federal Government N142.7 billion and that the Corporation has not shown any intention to pay the money.

This is coming as Public Accounts committee of the same House asked Mohammed Abubakar, Inspector General (IG) of Police to arrest Andrew Yakubu, group managing director, NNPC; Reginald Stanley, executive secretary, Petroleum Products Price Regulatory Agency (PPPRA); and Osten Oluyemisiola, director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and bring them before the House today at 1.30 p.m.

The subpoena was issued on the trio over their failure to honour numerous invitations extended to them by the committee in the past.

Consequently, the House has summoned Andrew Yakubu, group managing director, NNPC, to explain why the corporation has failed to remit the said amount from the N6 trillion Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) realised between 2009 and July last year to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) as demanded by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.

Also summoned are the chief executives officers of all the 16 subsidiaries of the oil corporation, including the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG) and the refineries.

Abdulmumin Jibrin, chairman of the Committee, had earlier said that  the corporation was initially hostile to a technical committee set up by the House to examine its records.

He said: “Our biggest challenge has been the NNPC, but as a committee, we have resolved that whatever we have to do within the confines of the law, NNPC must be made to pay the money.

“We have said it before that NNPC has never remitted anything under its IGR to the CRF. In 2009, the Corporation generated N2.048 trillion, and made N2.155 trillion in 2010.

“While N1.9trillion was realised in 2011, by July of 2012, the Corporation made N259billion as its IGR. But between 2009 and 2012, the Corporation remitted nothing out of the N6 trillion it generated to the CRF as demanded by law.”

Jibrin explained that to ascertain what was due to the Federal Government was not lost to either fraud or inefficiency, the Committee set up a technical group to examine the books of the corporation and its 16 subsidiaries.

Elsewhere, Solomon Adeola-Olamilekan, his counterpart in Public Accounts said that Yakubu and other affected heads of the agencies have been invited several times to answer to queries raised by Auditor General of the Federation over various allegations of financial impropriety, but they refused to turn up.

“At the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, it was observed from the component statements of 2007 that Joint Venture Cash Calls (JVC) of the sum of N549,973 billion, Excess Crude of the sum of N1,168 trillion and Petroleum Product Subsidy of the sum of N236,641 billion were deducted from proceeds of crude oil sales, while the sums of N25.951 billion and N62,542 billion were excess proceeds deducted in respect of Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) and Royalties respectively.

“These deductions were made before the net revenues were paid to the Federation Account contrary to the provisions of Section 162(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which requires all such revenues to be paid directly into the Federation Account,” Olamilekan said.

He added: “The sums of N13,081 billion and N16,895 billion, being 4 per cent and 7 per cent of total non-oil and gas revenues, were deducted as cost of collection from the Federation Account and paid to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigeria Customs Service respectively.

“There was no evidence to show that these rates were passed into law by the National Assembly.

“The Accountant General of the Federation has been requested to produce the evidence showing that the rates for the deductions were approved by Acts of the National Assembly, otherwise, we advise the relevant collecting agencies should seek formal legislative approval for the rates.”

Similarly, he said, “Audit examination of the mandate letters from NNPC to CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) in the months of January and February 2007 revealed that the benchmark amount of the domestic crude oil sales proceeds were not fully paid by N38,816 billion to the Federation Account.

“This balance should be paid into the Federation Account, and relevant particulars forwarded for audit verification.

“Out of the total withdrawals made from the account of the Excess Crude Oil in the year 2007, the sum of US$1,604 billion could not be traced into the records of FAAC on Excess Crude Oil for the year.

“Similarly, payments totalling US$1,569 billion made from Excess Crude Oil/PPT/Royalty Revenues as per FAAC records were not reflected in the CBN Statement of Account for the year 2007.”

The committee similarly demanded explanations from the CBN, the FIRS and the Customs Service on the circumstances surrounding the discrepancy of N7.935 billion in the money generated and remitted by the Customs Service to the Federation Account in 2007.