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Faults Senate Committee’s Report
- Safiu Kehinde
The former Nigeria National Petroleum Company’s (NNPC) Chief Financial Officer, Umar Ajiya, has refuted claims of using N5.8 billion in registering the company as he clarified the financial misappropriation allegation against the administration of the former Group Chief Executive Officer of the company, Melee Kyari.
Umar made the clarification while addressing a Senate panel at the National Assembly on Thursday.
The ex-NNPC CFO declared the reports of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts as inaccurate, stressing that the company was registered with N2.9 billion and not N5.8 billion.
“Figures that aroused many of you and in fact the Nigerian public that the sum of N5.8 billion was used to register the new company, NNPC, that is not true. It is inaccurate.
“The amount that was used to register that company is N2.9 billion and it was paid to two government agencies- Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and FIRS which is not NRS.
“What happened is that someone must have misled the committee with the fact that NNPC, being a child of NAPIMS Mobil, ought to have been given the money to be used for the registration by the Federation because in accordance with the PIA, it is these two shareholders that represents the Nigerian public.
“Because Mobil did not bring the money, NNPC paid to the FIRS and CAC. NNPC now invoiced NAPIMS as the arm that superintends federation assets because it is a federation liability.” He said.
Umar claimed that the consultant who advised the Senate Committee must have erroneous added up the N2.9 billion recorded in the NAPIMS record with that of the NNPC to come up with the N5.8 billion claim.
“Consequently, many of you accountants will understand that each of these two have to record those transactions in their books.
“What either the consultant or whoever is advising the committee must have done was to add what he saw in NAPIMS and NNPC books to say N5.8 billion was used to register NNPC.” He said.
On the alleged missing N210 trillion fund, Umar talked down the allegation as he disclosed that the entire revenue of the NNPC is not up to half of the alleged missing amount.
According to him, the total revenue of the NNPC in the period under review was N54.5 trillion.
He recalled advising the former Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, and the Auditor-General to do a forensic auditing of the company’s account.
“The reality is that the whole revenue earned in the period under review, assuming no kobo was spent in producing the oil, is N54.5 trillion. So, how can N210 trillion goes missing?
“And I had advised before, even the Auditor-General and the last Minister of Finance that please for the sake of good order, do a forensic auditing on NNPC so that you will find the truth and whoever has stolen money, look after them and jail the person.” He said.
Umar defended the integrity of senior officials under the Kyari-led administration while warning of the implication of the ongoing probe on the image of the NNPC and Nigeria.
“We don’t steal. We are patriotic. We blocked leakages. So, when you hear people say N210 trillion is missing, where has it gone to?
“Ask EFCC and other agencies to go and look for it.
“The danger of this is that we are not only damaging the characters of individuals and company itself, NNPC, but also Nigeria itself.
“Remember that it is whatever we dished out to the public is what the rating agencies use to rate Nigeria.
“By extension, our rating goes down. That is how we shoot ourselves in the leg.” He said.