NNPC denies CBN’s allegation on unremitted $20b oil revenue

The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation on Tuesday dismissed claims by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, that it had not remitted $20 billion to the Federation Account.
This was contained in a statement issued in Abuja by Dr. Omar Ibrahim, the Acting Group General Manager of the Public Affairs Division of the NNPC.
The statement said this was not the first time the CBN governor would be making wild allegations about the NNPC.
The statement recalled that Sanusi made the allegation on Tuesday in his presentation before the Ahmed Markafi-led Senate Committee probing the allegation of unremitted $49.8 billion oil proceeds.
It quoted the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Andrew Yakubu, as saying that Sansui’s claim on the existence of an unremitted $20 billion is far from the reality on ground.
It said this will be proved when investigations were concluded.
“The CBN boss had alleged that revenue from NPDC, a subsidiary of the NNPC, was not being remitted to the Federation Account,” it stated.
It expressed surprise that even after extensive clarification on the matter, the CBN was still confusing the role of NPDC as part of NNPC’s upstream operations.
The statement faulted Sanusi’s claim that NPDC’s gross earnings ought to be remitted to the Federation Account, explaining that the company was a limited liability outfit registered under CAMA to do business.
The statement by the NNPC said: “Let me make this point clear, CBN is a banking outfit, not a petroleum outfit.
“It is therefore understandable why they keep making unsubstantiated claims, which a little understanding of the technicalities of the oil industry would have saved them from making.
“CBN is not an auditing outfit. But what it is doing is now auditing.
“We have no problem with auditing, but let the professionals, the certified bodies and agencies that are charged with this responsibility of auditing, do their work.”
It explained that the issues raised by Sanusi were not fresh at all and would be eventually reconciled by the Inter Agency Committee established to settle the $49.8 billion saga.
The statement added: “Our position remains the same and we remain open to all stakeholders.
“These are issues that are currently before the reconciliation committee and before now it has been a subject of monthly verification before FAAC and other stakeholders.”
It reiterated what the Director-General of Budget had said at the hearing that a lot of progress had been made in the reconciliation of the $10.8 billion.
It expressed the hope that the final report would be ready and NNPC vindicated by the time the committee meets next week.