Falana asks court to compel Buhari to recover $40bn, N481bn from NNPC, others

Human rights activist, Femi Falana, has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to compel the Muhammadu Buhari administration to recover the sum of $40 billion and N481 billion from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria.

In his suit before the court, Falana said that Buhari should recover the monies based on the audit of the extractive industry carried out by the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI), an agency of the Federal Government.

In the originating summons, Falana is asking the federal high court to grant the following reliefs:

“A declaration that by the express provisions of sections 2 (a), (b) and 3 (f) of the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative Act, the 1st defendant is under a legal obligation to recover the unremitted sums of $22.06 billion and N481.75 billion Naira owed the Federal Government of Nigeria by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (‘NNPC”); the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (“NPDC”) and other oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria.

“A declaration that by the express provisions of sections 2 (a), (b) and 3 (f) of the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative Act, the 1st defendant is under a legal obligation to recover the sum of $28 billion lost in revenues that are due to the Federal Government of Nigeria due to failure to review the terms of the 1993 Production Sharing Contracts “PSCs”with International Oil Companies, in line with Section 16 (2) of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract Act, Cap D3, Laws of the Federation, 2004.

“A mandatory order of the court directing the 1st defendant to recover the unremitted sums of $22.06Billion and N481.75 Billion Naira owed the Federal Government of Nigeria by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (“NNPC”); the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (“NPDC”) and other oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria.

“A mandatory order of the Court directing the 1st defendant to recover the sum of $28Billion lost in revenues that are due to the Federal Government of Nigeria due to failure to review the terms of the 1993 Production Sharing Contracts “PSCs” with International Oil Companies, in line with Section 16 (2) of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract Act, Cap D3, Laws of the Federation, 2004.”

In the affidavit in support of the originating summons, Falana stated that he had confirmed from NEITI that the Federal Government had failed to recover the outstanding sums of $22.06 billion and N481.75 billion owed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (‘NNPC”) and the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (“NPDC”) and other unremitted payments by some International Oil Companies.

In addition to the unremitted fund Falana wants the federal government to recover the sum of $28 billion oil revenues lost due to the failure to review the terms of the 1993 Production Sharing Contracts “PSCs” in line with Section 16 (2) of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract Act, Cap D3, Laws of the Federation, 2004.

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Falana who attached the audited reports of the NEITI to the supporting affidavit further stated that “Nigeria is presently losing much needed revenue due to the failure of the Federal Government to ensure that all payments due to the Federal Government of Nigeria from all extractive industry companies involved in the Production Sharing Contracts, including taxes, royalties, dividends, bonuses, penalties, levies and such like are duly paid to the Federal Government of Nigeria.”

Tayo Soyemi from Falana and Falana Chambers, who made this known in a statement on Suday, said that the suit was based on the provisions of the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative Act which have imposed a duty on the Federal Government to implement the audit reports of NEITI.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and NEITI are the defendants in the suit. No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit as the defendants have not filed their defence.

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