The senate vowed to investigate ‘confusing and worrying’ lost ₦ 210Trn at NNPC Ltd

The Senate Committee on public accounts, chaired by Aliyu Wadada, has increased serious concerns over the differences involving large-senior N210 trillion in the audited financial statements from the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd), describing the revelation as Mindroleum and Worrisome.

During the investigation session on Wednesday, where the NNPC LTD Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Dapo Segun, appeared before the Committee, there were no detailed records that justified a large legal and audit cost marked, as well as contradictions in reported receivables were worth more than N210 trillion between 2017 and 2023.

The panel said, “Legal costs are obtained without explanation or documentation regarding the legal services provided. The cost of the auditor raises a similar question. There is no clear justification. Everything we have seen and heard from the financial statements that are audited is troubling.”

Furthermore Senator Wadada stated that the main concern was with receivables.

“Trillions of Naira are questioned, and the new documents they present this afternoon do not match what is already in the audited report. This is entirely independent and contradictory,” he said.

The committee underlined that the concern came from the analysis of the financial statements that were audited by NNPC which included 2017 to 2023, not from speculation.

Senator Wadada also warned that this problem would not be swept away under the rug, mainly because the Tinubu government, under the new hope agenda, sought transparency and accountability in public finance.

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“They say the expenditure rates that still need to be paid are and still, because that is what is contained in the statement, N103 trillion. And what shapes the costs to be paid, one, the cost of retention, legal costs, and auditor costs.

“Only this afternoon, before the start of the exercise, NNPC brought new documents, documents to the committee that was fully independent of what was contained in the audited financial statements, and with goods that were contrary to the goods contained in the audited financial statements.

“This is very ridiculous, very unacceptable by the committee, but well it is possible, you have listened to everything that happened, and the questions are now handed over to them.

“It is important for the public to find out that each of these questions originates as a result of what we find from the financial statements that NNPC audited from 2017 to 2023. Costs that still need to be paid and then receivables, we speak more than N210 trillion.

“For us, as representatives of the people, we will do the best we can. I know for sure that this will not only be in vain.

As a result, the Nigerian Senate issued a NNPC Ltd one week to explain financial differences in the audited financial statements that stretched 2017 to 2023.

“This is not just about balancing books – this is about restoring trust in public institutions,” said Wadada. “Every Cobo must be taken into account.”

By: Babajide Okeowo