THE Senate Committee on Public Accounts has issued a 10-day ultimatum to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
It issued the ultimatum on Thursday, June 26, following the failure of the representatives of the state-owned oil firm to appear before its investigation panel over N210 trillion discrepancies flagged in its audited accounts.
The committee, chaired by Aliyu Wadada, had on Wednesday, June 18, during an investigative session, raised an alarm when NNPCL representatives, led by the Chief Financial Officer, Dapo Segun, appeared before it, The ICIR reported.
It had highlighted discrepancies in the absence of detailed records by the NNPCL to justify massive discrepancies in its 2017 to 2023 audited statements, amounting to N210 trillion.
To seek clarity on these unaccounted funds in the NNPCL’s books, the committee then handed over a list of 11 queries to NNPCL’s finance team to respond to within one week and appear before the committee on Thursday, June 26.
However, NNPCL’s officials or external auditors did not show up despite the scheduled meeting.
In response, the committee had to issue a 10-day ultimatum, demanding the company’s top executives appear before the panel by July 10 or face constitutional sanctions.
In a letter dated June 25, the NNPCL had requested a two-month extension to enable the company to prepare necessary documents and responses.
“Having carefully reviewed your request, we hereby request your kind consideration to reschedule the engagement for two months from now to enable us to collate the requested information and documentation.
“Furthermore, members of the Board and the senior management team of NNPC Limited are currently out of the office for a retreat, which makes it difficult to attend the rescheduled session on Thursday, 26th June, 2025,” the letter was quoted to have stated.
However, the lawmakers rejected the request as the committee chairman explained that the NNPCL was not expected to submit documents, but rather provide verbal responses to the 11 questions requested from them.
“For an institution like NNPCL to ask for two months to respond to questions from its audited records is unacceptable.
“If they fail to show up by July 10, we will invoke our constitutional powers. The Nigerian people deserve answers,” Wadada maintained.