The House of Representatives has accused the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of illegally withdrawing about $1.05 billion from the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited funds without due process.
Consequently, the lower legislative chamber decided at Tuesday’s plenary session to investigate the Corporation for the alleged illegal withdrawals from the NLNG account.
The NLNG Limited is jointly owned in the following proportions: NNPC (49%), Shell Gas B.V. owns 25.6%, Total LNG Nigeria Ltd owns 15% and Eni International owns 10.4%.
The decision to probe the Corporation was sequel to a motion from the House Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, who alleged that the NNPC management tampered with the NLNG funds without approval from states and the National Assembly.
Specifically, Elumelu noted that the nation’s appropriation law provides that the NLNG dividends are to be paid into the consolidated revenue funds account and shared among the three tiers of government.
Contrary to this, the NNPC, according to the minority leader, without the required consultations with states and the mandatory appropriation from the national assembly, illegally tampered with the funds at the NLNG dividends account to the tune of $1.05bn, thereby violating the law.
The house further alleged lack of transparency in extra-budgetary spending, pointing out that only the NNPC’s GMD and its chief financial officer had the knowledge of how the $1.05bn was spent.
Besides, he said there were no records showing the audit and recovery of accrued funds from the NLNG by the Attorney General of the Federation’s (AGF’s) office.
The House has therefore mandated its committee on public accounts to invite NNPC and NLNG managements to explain how they have been managing the dividends account and report back to it in a month’s time.