The All Progressives Congress (APC) has renewed its call on the Federal Government to probe the whereabouts of the dividends paid to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (NLNG).
APC in a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the call for the probe has become more urgent against the backdrop of newspaper report that the NNPC has withdrawn $1.2 billion from banks so it could place the money with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
New Telegraph had on Wednesday exclusively reported that NNPC has withdrawn $1.2 billion (N240 billion) from banks, triggering more dollar liquidity squeeze in the money market and causing the value of the naira to depreciate further at the parallel market. New Telegraph’s expose noted that NNPC wrote the lenders last Tuesday, intimating them of its intention to transfer its domiciliary accounts to CBN.
The report was also confirmed by a top NNPC official. The source said the decision to move the accounts to the CBN stemmed from the ongoing probe of the corporation, stressing that it was to harmonise all “their accounts.” A CBN official, who spoke on anonymity, also corroborated the NNPC official’s statement, saying the oil corporation’s directive to transfer its funds to the Central Bank was in order given the fact that the CBN is a banker to the government and that the oil corporation is also an institution of the government.
While renewing the call for NNPC probe, APC said the move by the oil corporation is a panic reaction to the expose by the party that over $4 billion are missing in past dividends paid to the NNPC by the NLNG. The party said: “Whereas NLNG’s dividends are paid to NNPC’s account with JP Morgan, from where they are supposed to be paid into the Federation Account in accordance with the law, some unscrupulous officials of the corporation have apparently been moving such funds to local banks so they can collect huge commissions on them.
“Now that the cat has been let out of the bag, they have started moving the funds from the banks to the CBN. We believe what we are seeing now is just a tip of the iceberg, hence the need for the authorities to call the NNPC officials to give accounts of the paid NLNG dividends to date.
“The top officials of the NNPC and others who met on Monday and decided to withdraw the $1.2 billion from the corporation’s account to the CBN must be asked a number of questions, including their motive for the decision and the whereabouts of the commissions paid on such funds,” it said.
APC also insisted that despite the attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of Nigerians, the Federal Government must remain undaunted in unravelling what happened to the dividends as well as previous taxes paid by the NLNG, as part of ongoing efforts to plug all financial leakages.
“It is not by accident that until the advent of the Buhari administration that has decided to enthrones transparency in governance, no one has heard anything about NLNG dividends and taxes, while the funds therefrom have not been shared as they should have been. This is not right.
“A situation in which funds meant for all Nigerians are eaten up by a few will no longer be tolerated. Those who are opposed to the efforts by the Buhari administration to clear the rot left behind by the past government and restore transparency to the system are enemies of Nigeria,” the party said
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