Palpable fear has gripped the top hierarchy of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its agencies over plans by the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, to probe the corporation. Buhari, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources and the first chairman of the NNPC board, had, in the build up to the March 29 presidential election, alleged that the corporation runs two sets of account books, “one for public consumption and another for insiders.” But the NNPC described Buhari’s statement as “political mischief.”
New Telegraph gathered at the weekend that about six week to the inauguration of the President-elect, the issue of probe has formed the focal point of discussion at meetings by the management of the corporation.
“All of us at various divisions and parastatals of the NNPC have been told to crosscheck our books with the internal audit department in preparation for any eventualities,” a management staff of the corporation told New Telegraph on condition of anonymity.
“General Buhari has not hidden his disdain for corruption and he has, at different fora, talked of his plans to probe NNPC, and many of us know that he won the election based on his anti-corruption stance. I do not need to deceive you my brother, his Major General Muhammadu Buhari, election is a big headache for those whose hands are not clean here,” the source added. Buhari’s emergence has stirred apprehension at the NNPC, which sees itself as the target of the anti-corruption crusade of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential standard bearer in the March 28 poll.
“It is natural that many heads will roll if the President- elect begins the probe of the NNPC,” the source said. Spokesperson for the NNPC, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, told New Telegraph in a telephone chat yesterday that there was no panic in NNPC, adding that the allegation that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke has gone to General Abdulsalami Abubakar to help her beg the President-elect, Buhari, to shelve the plan to probe her was false.
He said: “Some elements are coming up with this allegation of panic in NNPC because they were shocked with the outcome of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit report. They never thought that our books would be clean. Our books are clean and there is no panic of any sorts in NNPC. “It is the handiwork of some elements in the APC.
They have won and we are still wondering why they would still go ahead with smear campaign. “They have even taken the campaign to a ridiculous level by publishing falsehood on Internet that the honourable minister has gone to the General Abdulsalami Abubakar to beg that the President elect should not probe her.
“They have also published a picture, which authenticity is under question, of the minister in a purported house of General Abdulsalami. This is pure falsehood.” Alegbe had described Buhari’s statement on the alleged two accounts as political mischief. “It is sad that General Buhari, one of the founding fathers of the NNPC, who himself has tasted of the virulent but false allegations deliberately concocted to cast the Corporation and the public sector management of the nation’s oil and gas industry in bad light, would be the one to allege that NNPC runs two sets of account books.
“We find it difficult to understand how a former Head of State who has also served as Minister of Petroleum Resources could believe that NNPC keeps two sets of account books to perpetrate fraud, knowing that NNPC is the most audited and scrutinised agency in the country,” he added. The NNPC noted that in the past one year, it has had its books scrutinised and audited by the Senate Committee on Finance and an external auditor, PwC. The forensic audit carried out on its books by PwC, the corporation said, absolved it of complicity in the $20 billion missing oil money.
The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Joseph Dawha, at a news conference, maintained that the report absolved NNPC of culpability on all counts. Dawha said the report had laid to rest the 15-month long controversy over the allegation of missing $49.8 billion. “The report has clearly vindicated our long held position that the alleged unremitted crude oil revenue was a farce from day one,” he said.
On the issue of the outstanding $1.48 billion, he explained that the amount was the balance of the book value of the divested assets that were transferred to NNPC upstream subsidiary. Dawha said the amount transferred to its subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), excluded taxes and royalties. “This does not constitute indictment; rather this value is still being reconciled with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
“It is pertinent to note that the $1.48 billion is not part of the alleged unremitted revenues from crude oil sales,” Dawha said. He explained that what the DPR sent to NNPC as the estimated value of the assets was $1.847 billion. He said out of this, the corporation paid over $300 million as a token to indicate its commitment to acquiring the assets pending resolution and reconciliation by NNPC and DPR.
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