Piqued by a recent report by Swiss a non-governmental advocacy organization, titled: “Swiss Traders Opaque Deals in Nigeria”, the House of Representatives has resolved to probe the allegation that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is conniving with some Swiss oil dealers to defraud Nigeria of $6.8 billion in the last few months.
In a unanimous decision, the lower chamber directed its standing committees on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Petroleum Resources (Downstream) and Justice to look into all issues raised in the report and report back within four weeks.
Vitol and Transfigura Commodity Trading Firms, a major NNPC partner, which has been fingered in the deals, is to be summoned to answer some questions before the panel.
The Swiss report accused the NNPC of selling crude oil below global market value, describing the scam as the biggest oil fraud in Africa.
Hon. Abiodun Abudu Balogun (Ogun APC) had in a motion enjoined the House to look into the report in the interest of the nation.
According to Balogun, the report accused the NNPC of being “in connivance with major Swiss oil trading companies, draining Nigeria of billions of dollars of revenue through the sale of crude oil below the market value.
“Nigeria is the only major oil producing nation that sells 100 per cent of its crude oil allocations to private traders rather than market it herself and benefit from the resulting added value with the greatest number of beneficiaries of export allocations.
“The sharp practices and deals in NNPC crude allocations to local refineries, are not utilised but sold fraudulently at knock down prices to Geneva-based companies through letter box companies by SWAP arrangement.”
The probe panel would also want to establish whether the alleged scam is one of the reasons why the NNPC and its subsidiaries had failed to publish their detailed financial reports since 2005.
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