The Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bayo Ojulari, is in serious trouble.
This is as the Senate has vowed to intensify scrutiny of the NNPCL’s accounts following allegations that the corporation’s chief attempted to cover up fraud within the state-owned oil company.
During a session of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, which rejected the NNPCL’s financial submissions citing questionable claims of ₦210 trillion in expenses and receivables between 2017 and 2021, Senator Adams Oshiomhole stated that:
“The NNPCL leadership has failed to provide satisfactory explanations or appear before the committee to defend the figures.”
“The financial mismanagement within the NNPCL involved sums greater than what President Bola Tinubu’s administration is currently seeking to borrow from foreign creditors.”
“The committee should exercise its constitutional powers under the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to summon and, if necessary, compel the appearance of the NNPCL boss before the Senate.”
“Being allowed to explain what happened that you have inherited is something you should do freely. But time and time again, the GMD is never going to come here. Charging a subsidy on refined product, the real words for it is monumental fraud.”
“The amount involved is far more than what the president is struggling to borrow from a foreign country.”