Fidelia Okafor.

The Nigerian Senate has begun investigation into the alleged embezzlement of N10 trillion oil revenue by some major oil marketers in collaboration with officials of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

This disclosure which was made known by the Senate joint committee on petroleum and Gas, at a press briefing held at the weekend in Abuja, covered a decade long oil marketing transactions between 2006 and 2016.

Chairmen of the Committee on petroleum downstream, Senator Kabiru Marafa who led the briefing, confirmed that, out of the N10trillion fraud, NNPC alone is to account for N5.2trillion it collected as subsidy from the federal government of Nigeria for importation of Petroleum Products, especially Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

“This is aside the 445,000 barrels of crude oil allocated to it on yearly basis for the Nation’s refineries for local consumption,” he noted.

Senator Marafa also stated that President Muhammadu Buhari and the Senate Leadership have thrown their weight behind the probe, as the present administration has resolved to bring the perpetrators to book.

Available records before the committee according to him, clearly show that during the period under investigation, NNPC imported fuel into the country that was more than 40% of our local consumption apart from gross under utilisation of the 445, 000 barrels it collected for local refining for local consumption on yearly basis due to very low capacities of the four refineries in the country then.

“NNPC being the custodian of Crude oil resources of the Nation , responsible for 51% of Petroleum Products importation into the country over the years aside the 445,000 crude allocation it gives itself on yearly basis for sales for local  refining , must account for the N5.2trillion available records show that it has spent on subsidy on its own 51% of petroleum products importation between 2006 and 2016 aside the N3.8trillion spent on similar subsidy for Independent Marketers and about $1.5billion yet to be accounted for by other key players in the industry,”

 “This committee has established the missing of 100million litres of PMS from such storage arrangement. We expected NNPC to have taken action against the two companies that carried out the theft but since it has not, we hereby ordered it to do so immediately, precisely within this week failure of which we shall make the whole details known to the public,” Senator Marafa said.

According to him, “all key players in the sector along with their collaborators who have taken the country for a ride during the period under review, must be brought to book through exhaustive investigation to be conducted soon because President Muhammadu Buhari and the Senate Leadership are very much interested in unmasking those behind the scam”.

 “President Buhari is highly supportive of this move by the Senate and we shall not fail in carrying out the needed holistic investigation on obvious sharp practices in the sector. Needed documents for the onerous task are already in our possession.”

Already listed to appear before the committee during the planned public investigative hearing that will last a minimum of three days, are Past and present Chief executives of the NNPC, their counterpart from the Independent Marketers, License Inspection Agency, Nigeria Ports Authority, FIRS, Customs, NIMASA etc.