Senate Probes NNPC’S $3.5bn Oil Subsidy Fraud

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Tuesday, November 6th, 2018

Photo: NNPC GMD, Maikanti Baru

ABUJA, NIGERIA (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Nigerian Senate has announced that it has constituted an ad-hoc committee to investigate the spending of the sum of $3.5bn alleged petroleum subsidy.

The announcement was made Tuesday through a tweet from the upper Legislative chamber twitter handle – @NGRSenate.

The Senate tweeted: “Senator Bassey Akpan cited Orders 43 and 95 and drew the attention of the Senate to the various emails and complaints from the general public on the unauthorized withdrawal of $3.5bn by NNPC from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) account.

“I ask that the Senate Committee on Gas immediately investigate this matter,” Senator
Bassey Akpan said; while Senator Emmanuel Paulker urged that “The ad hoc committee that was set up should carry on with their work, while the Committee on Gas should also investigate the matter.”

The decision for the Senate’s investigation was informed by the recent allegation that the sum of $3.5bn was withdrawn by the NNPC from NLNG purse to settle outstanding petroleum subsidies.

The development was against the expectation of the public as the present administration has since declared that no petroleum marketer will be paid any subsidy, due to deregulation of the downstream sub sector of oil and gas industry.