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NNPC staff in panic as Reps probe missing $17bn oil money

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Our efforts have triggered drop in price of petrol across Nigeria - NNPC

Noticeable tension has gripped officials of the ministries, NNPC and its subsidiaries following the move by the Nigeria House of Representatives to commence probe into an alleged missing $17 billion from petroleum exports by companies and government agencies in the past two years.

The lower house has, through its member, Johnson Agbonayinma, who filed a motion late on Thursday, alleged that the country is being shortchanged by the very officials entrusted with its resource management.

“There is an urgent need to investigate the over $17 billion so far known to have been stolen from undeclared crude oil and liquefied natural gas exports to global destinations,” he told fellow law makers.

He said he had necessary papers to prove the allegation and called for a concerted move to recover the money, which he described as mind-boggling sums stolen from the oil sector and which is unprecedented in the history of any of the OPEC-member nations.

It was gathered that following the adoption of the motion and subsequent referral of the case to the relevant committee of the house, uneasy calm has been noticed among government officials, who fear that they might be fingered by the investigation.

Ms. Roselyn Kariat, an official of a non government agency that monitors crude oil exploration and export in Nigeria, Intelligent Oil Monitors (IOM), said her agency was not surprised by such allegation.

“We have on several occasions stated that Nigeria had never been able to get exactly the value and quantity of its oil export since inception. And it will continue to be so as long as those in charge of metre reading and other activities at the point of data collation are foreigners, who collude with Nigerians to defraud the country,” she said.

The current economic recession, which Nigeria is in is said to have been caused by the inability of the country to sustain its main source of revenue, oil since the beginning of 2015, made worse by a crash in the price of crude oil in the international market.

Also not helping matters is the persistent attack of its oil facilities in the Niger Delta region, which is responsible for loss of over 70 per cent of the projected 2.2 million barrels per day.

By Emma Eke…

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