Senate probes sales of 1.7m barrel of crude oil by EFCC

 

 

 By Adekunle Adesuji and Jonas Ezeike, Abuja

 

 

Senate Committee on Finance on Thursday launched probe into an alleged sales  of  1.7 million of crude oil seized by Nigerian Navy between 2021 and  first quarter of 2022 by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) without awareness of Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Ahmed Zainab.

 

The Nigerian Navy represented by  Real Admiral , Sola Oluwagbire who is the Director of Operations while speaking before Senate Committee on Finance during an interactive session on loses of revenue in maritime sector said that 44 ships loaded with crude oil were arrested in 2021 with 1.6 million barrel of crude , 4.6 million liters of  PMS and 13 ships were arrested within first quarter of 2022  with 154,000 of crude oil.

 

 

The total crude oil seized by Nigerian Navy between 2021 and first quarter is 1.754 million crude oil.

 

 

He told the Committee that the seized ships were handed over to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), because the Nigerian Navy is not the prosecuting agency and the Anti-graft agency has disposed the seized crude oil.

 

However, when the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Olamileken Solomon asked the Minister of Finance whether she is aware of the disposed crude oil handed over to EFCC by the Nigeria Navy, the Minister responded that she is not aware of how the seized products have been handled.

 

She said, ” I am not aware how the seized products were handled.”

 

Thereafter, the Chairman of the Committee, while speaking on the.development after the interactive session said  the Committee has asked Navy to supply more information, the Committee will want to know the current situation of the seized products.

 

 

Olamileken said, ” What I can is that , it is another information, we have asked Navy to supply us with information, we want to know the current state of the seized products.

 

” NNPC is going to appear before us on Monday and we will invite EFCC.”

Also, The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on the State of the nation’s refineries has began investigations into where the trillions of naira sunk into the Turn Around Maintenance TAM of these refineries by the federal government is kept.

 

To this end, the House Ad-hoc Committee has invited and grilled the Minister of Budget and National Planning Dr.Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Director-General Budget office of the Federation Ben Akabueze Group Managing Director Nigeria National Oil Company Ltd NNPC Mallam Mele Kyari and other chief executive officers of government agencies in charge of oil production and distribution on the matter.

 

Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee Hon Abdulganiyu Johnson said that replying on the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, they demand from the Group Managing Director of NNPC the state of the nation’s four refineries.

 

The Ad-hoc Committee he said also demands from the GMD, the Minister of Finance and the Director-General Budget office of the Federation the details of all the approved budgets for the rehabilitation and maintenance of the four refineries located at Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna.

 

The Committee also demanded from the invited stakeholders the certificate of completion of all approved and awarded contracts and well as copies of project completion documents for the rehabilitation of the refineries l.

 

He had informed that the probe panel had earlier written to the NNPC on March 22,2022 on the matter but the reaponse made by the agency did not meet the requirement expected by the Committee

Also,The House of Representatives Ad-hoc probing the unremmitted N1.2trn by banks, other financial  institutions and Ministries, Departments and Agencies MDAs of the Federal Government on Thursday asked the Registrar Joint Admission and Matriculation Board JAMB and the Corporate Affairs Commission CAC counterpart and some banks to submit the documents by it and re-apper after one week.

 

 

The House Committee had at an investigative hearing on the whereabout of the N1.2 trn funds owed the federal government by some banks and key MDAs had invited the two Registrars and CEOs of these agencies to avail the probe panel with documents from their finance department to unravel the issue

 

Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee Hon.Uyime Idem said that the infraction by the JAMB a national examination body is incurring defecit in its budgeting processes.

 

He further stated that the probe panel is in a mission to recover the N1.2 trillion from these government agencies and banks.

 

He asked the representatives of the agencies chief executive officer of JAMB and Director of Finance Mufutau Bello to submit thier documents to the panel on Monday April 3, 2022 and re-apper on Wednesday April 5, 2022.

 

A member of the Committee Hon.Benjamin Kalu (Abia,APC) said that the House must take record of the fact that the examination body did not submit the requested documents that would aid the investigation

 

The Committee also grilled the Registrar General Corporate Affairs Commission CAC representative Mr Orji Ozioma a Deputy Director of Budget on the infraction by the agency to the tune of N25billion.

 

The official said that the CAC CEO is asking the panel for an extension of time to complete the scrutiny of the agency’s finance books for proper defence.

 

The Committee also grilled the representatives of the Managing Director of Stanbic IBTC bank and his Heritage Bank counterpart and requested them to submit their documents on Tuesday April 4, 2022 and re-apper on Thursday April 6, 2022.

 

The Committee Chairman Hon. Idem the panel will not relent in the investigation until the over N1 trillion owed the government of Nigeria is recovered to help in fundi

 

He said:”It is agreed by all Nigerians that oil subsidy is no longer sustainable. To put it succinctly, why are the nation’s refineries not working.

What can we do to make it work?”

 

In his response the Director-General Budget Office of the Federation Mr Ben Akabueze who represented the Minister of Finance said that $700 million is the contribution of the federal government to the refineries rehabilitation.

 

He also agve a breakdown of the funding of the funding to the refineries on yearly basis as $81 2 billion in 2020 and $100 billion in 2021.

 

He added that $109.3 billion is the deduction of federally funded projects in the nation’s refineries.

 

The Committee Chairman in his response said that all the invited government agencies in charge of the rehabilitation of the nation’s four refneries must put up appearance and appropriate defence of the tax payers money sunk into the fixing of the very important oil facilities.