Senate Alleges Fresh $1.15bn Illegal Withdrawals From NLNG Accounts

The Senate says it has uncovered illegal withdrawals of $ 1,151, 609 bn from the dividends accounts of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation.

This is apart from the $1.05 bn which the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, had earlier admitted was withdrawn on the presidential directive.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas, Senator Bassey Akpan, on Wednesday, said the alleged illegal withdrawals by the NNPC through the Central Bank of Nigeria were discovered in the course of an ongoing investigation by his panel on the $1. 05 bn.

Akpan said the NNPC GMD had explained that the $1.05 bn was withdrawn to bridge the gap of losses being suffered by the corporation on landing cost of imported fuel which is N185 compared to the pump price of N145.

The Akpan panel was mandated by the Senate, two weeks ago, to probe the $1.05 bn which the NNPC withdrew from the accounts in April this year without authorization by relevant authorities.

The committee subsequently ordered the NNPC and the CBN to submit documents relating to the withdrawals made from the NLNG dividends account within the last two years.

The committee, while going through the NLNG documents presented to it on Wednesday by the Chief Operating Officer ( Finance ) at the CBN, Babatunde Adeniran, observed series of cash debiting from the account from November 2016 to June this year totaling $2 .201bn.

 

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