The Senate has accused the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of operating N42. 005 billion illegal accounts, according to Senator Dino Melaye, (APC Kogi West), who raised the alarm say the account is operated through a point of order by NNPC and some expatriates in the oil industry under the name of a registered company called Brass NLG Limited with the Federal Government controlling the account.
According to him, the account which by extant laws is supposed to be domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is domiciled in a Keystone Bank and without Bank Verification Number (BVN). Dino alleged that periodic withdrawals are being made from the account, the latest of which was $4 million (N220 million), which he said made the account to now have a balance of $137 million (N41.785billion).
Senate President, Bukola Saraki ruled that the substantive motion on the alleged fraud would be deliberated upon. The Senate asked the NNPC to carry out an immediate forensic audit of the controversial $16.3 billion Egina oil project.
Meanwhile, the Senate ad-hoc committee on local content noted that the project being undertaken by Total Upstream Nigeria Limited, which started in 2013 and is almost 90 percent completed has not been audited in any form since the commencement of the project estimated to produce 200, 000 barrels of oil per day.
