Oscarline Onwuemenyi
14 December 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Senate has criticised the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), for failing to remit $3.47bn to the Federation account.
The Senate also, following a motion by Sen. Dino Melaye, directed its Committee on Finance to probe both agencies for withholding the said amount.
Melaye had accused both agencies of “a satanic collabo”, arguing that “there is a case of unlawful misappropriation and criminal withholding of public revenue by NNPC and NPDC from 2013 to date to of about $4bn.”
He accused the agencies of lacking transparency in crude oil lifting, adding that the NPDC had lifted crude from their oil wells OML 65, OML 111, OML 119 to the tune of $1.8bn, but only remitted $100m.
The Senate leader, Sen. Ali Ndume, backed Melaye and called for seriousness in investigating the matter.
He added that Melaye could not have made the figure public without doing his research.
