THE House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee has summoned the Principal/Chief Executive Officer of the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Samuel Onoji, alongside its Director of Finance, Aliyu Mafindi, over alleged financial irregularities exposed by an investigation by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR).
The invitation was also extended to the Bursar and other relevant officers in the Institute.
In a letter, signed by the committee chairman, Bamidele Salam, the PTI was directed to appear before the committee on April 29, 2025, at the House of Representatives at 1:00 p.m.
The summon, made under Order XX, Rule 6 of the House Standing Orders and Section 89 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), mandates PTI management, including the Director of Finance and the Institute’s Bursar, to explain alleged violations relating to the utilisation of public funds, non-remittance of fees, and disregard for financial regulations.
The committee warned that attendance is mandatory, adding that failure to honour the invitation could result in a resolution against the institute without further recourse.
Speaking further with The ICIR on the development, Salam stressed that the meeting “is mainly on the report as well as a few other issues which are being unearthed.”
The development follows an investigation by The ICIR, which exposed how Mafindi orchestrated a scheme that siphoned over N200 million from the institution since 2018.
According to the report, Mafindi exploited oversight visits by the National Assembly committees, which, in several cases, never occurred, as a pretext to request and divert public funds into his personal and proxy accounts.
The ICIR reports that oversight visits by the National Assembly to government agencies are a routine. The visits often come with financial provisions for logistics, accommodation, and honoraria. The Petroleum Training Institute, like other agencies, regularly receives official letters from lawmakers planning oversight visits.
Documents obtained by The ICIR revealed that large sums, including N21.85 million, N15.5 million, and N25.76 million between 2018, were disbursed for oversight visits that never took place.
Payment vouchers showed that the funds were paid directly into Mafindi’s accounts in violation of Nigeria’s Public Sector Financial Regulation Act, which criminalises such actions.
Despite an internal probe by the PTI’s Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) at the end of his initial tenure in 2021, Mafindi was reappointed in 2023.
The fraudulent activities continued into 2024, with the reappointment of Mafindi and Onoji’s emergence as the principal of the Institute.
In March and April 2024, N25.8 million and N43.4 million, respectively, were disbursed through proxies for supposed visits by the House Public Accounts and Public Procurement Committees, visits which lawmakers later confirmed never took place.
When contacted, the Chairman House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee, Bamidele Salam, denied any visits by the committee to the Institute since 2023.
On three different instances, as referenced by the Institute Finance Director that the public accounts committee would be visiting, Salam said neither he nor any of the committee members had visited the PTI-at least to the best of his knowledge and that of the House Clerk.
‘We never planned, proposed, or intended any visit to that Institute. There was absolutely nothing of such,” he said, reiterating that, “For the benefit of doubt, I restate again that this Institute has not featured in any of our hearings nor have we had any engagement with them in the last two years.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M