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SENATE INVESTIGATES NNPCL OVER ALLEGED MISSING 210TN NAIRA IN ITS AUDITED ACCOUNTS   

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SENATE INVESTIGATES NNPCL OVER ALLEGED MISSING 210TN NAIRA IN ITS AUDITED ACCOUNTS                                                                                                 18-06-25

By Sadiq Aminu                                       The Senate has given the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited one week deadline to explain the financial discrepancies totalling over N210tn in its audited financial statements between 2017 to 2023.

The deadline was issued on Wednesday during a heated session of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, where NNPCL’s Chief Financial Officer, Dapo Segun, and other external auditors of the company appeared for interrogation.

The Lawmakers expressed disappointment over what they described as irregularities in figures listed under accrued expenses and receivables in the company’s audited reports.

The Chairman of the public account committee, Senator Aliyu Wadada, questioned the inconsistencies in the company’s audits account and described it as “unacceptable” and warned that the Senate would not relent to pursue the matter to the full extent of its oversight powers.

“We are looking at over N210tn in just two categories—accrued expenses and receivables. These are not mere rounding errors; they raise fundamental questions about transparency and financial integrity,” Wadada said.

According to the Senate, the audited reports showed accrued expenses of N103tn, which included N600bn in retention fees, unspecified legal fees, and auditor charges without any accompanying documentation or referenced contracts.

“How do you quote N600bn in retention fees with no contract to back it up?

“There are legal fees with no record of the legal services rendered. It’s completely unjustifiable,” Wadada queried.

He said even more disturbing was a N103tn figure listed under receivables.

The committee pointed out that NNPCL submitted a revised document just moments before the hearing, one which contradicted the audited statements already made public.

“The new document completely distorts the figures in the official audit. We find that not just ridiculous, but deeply troubling,” Wadada noted.

He expressed concern that NNPCL went ahead to release and sign off on these audited financials despite ongoing internal reconciliations.
“How do you proceed to finalise audited accounts while still reconciling such massive figures? These aren’t internal memos; they’re public documents that potential investors will scrutinise,” he said.

The committee, however, raised a round of 11 questions to NNPCL and expects detailed responses within one week.

Lawmakers stressed that this was not a witch-hunt, but a necessary step to uphold fiscal discipline amid the government’s broader push for revenue generation.

Senator Wadada made reference to President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, saying it hinged on transparency and financial prudence.

“In a country striving to change its national narrative, access to accurate and verifiable financial data is non-negotiable. These kinds of discrepancies sabotage that mission,” he added.

In a twist that further deepened concerns, the Senate discovered that between 2017 and 2021, a key NNPCL subsidiary National Petroleum Investment Management Services declared N9tn in profit, while the parent company, NNPCL, reported a loss of N16bn during the same period.

The Senate, therefore, vowed to dig deep into the matter, vowed to exhaust every legislative mechanism to ensure accountability.

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