New Telegraph

No missing 48m barrels of crude oil–NNPC

Asks NASS to commission forensic audit

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), yesterday, told the Senate that the claim by a news medium in the country that 48 million barrels of crude oil was missing, was false and misleading. The Corporation therefore, challenged the Senate to carry out a forensic audit on the claim at its own cost. The Corporation also said that the National Assembly approves its (NNPC) budget on yearly basis. The issue of the alleged missing barrels of crude oil and unapproved yearly budget of the NNPC came to the fore at an interactive session of the officials of NNPC with the Senate Joint Committee on Finance and National Planning on projected revenues in the 2021 – 2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).

The Chairman of the Joint Committee, Senator Solomon Adeola (APC Lagos West), had in questioning the oil corporation over the alleged missing barrels of oil, demanded for proven evidence and not verbal denial by NNPC through media advertorials. However, the Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC, Mele Kyari, who was represented by the Chief Finance Officer, Umar Ajiya, in his response, said that there was no evidence against the claim than the fact that there were no records of ships that sailed out of the Nigerian waters with such contrabands and clearance from the Nigerian Navy and Directorate of Petroleum and Resources (DPR).

“No ship leaves the country without clearance from the appropriate unit of the Nigerian Navy and there is no way any ship with such alleged stolen crude could escape from the Nigeria shores. “As far as the NNPC is concerned , no barrel of crude oil is missing as falsely alleged and we are very ready to be investigated over it in form of commissioning of a forensic audit by the National Assembly at its own cost ” , he said .

Read Previous

Kwara picks Gen Bello, ex-DSS director, for security roles

Read Next

Attitude, greatest challenge in fight against COVID-19, says PTF

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *