NOSA EGHAGHA
The House of Representatives in Nigeria has vowed to unravel circumstances leading to loss of over $2.4 billion revenue from alleged illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil exported in 2015.
The House ad-hoc committee investigating the matter gave this indication at its inaugural meeting at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja, the nation’s capital on Thursday.
The green chamber had last week Tuesday resolved to constitute an ad-hoc committee to probe the allegation when it adopted a motion sponsored by Isiaka Ibrahim from Ogun state at plenary.
The committee was also mandated to investigate all crude oil exports and sales by Nigeria from 2014 till date with regards to quantity, insurance, revenue generated, remittances into the federation accounts or other accounts and utilisation of revenue for the period under review.
Ibrahim said in the motion that, “a whistleblower alleged in July 2020 that he had in July 2015, brought to the attention of a committee purportedly set up by the President for the recovery of missing crude oil exports, the existence of 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude oil in storage at several ports in China, under the authorisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC) to sell the cargo.”
Mark Gbillah, chairman of the ad-hoc committee, in his remarks said the panel will engage local and foreign stakeholders to get to the roots of the issues, assuring whistleblowers of adequate protection in the course of the exercise.
Gbillah appealed to international partners of Nigeria such as the United States, Mexico and the Chinese government to give the committee appropriate cooperation required stating that it would visit some of the countries to obtain the facts behind the matter.
The lawmaker commended the President Muhammadu Buhari administration for bringing forth the whistleblower, though he and the minister of finance recently admitted that it has not been successful in terms of the amount of revelation that they expected and the recoveries expected.
“It is obviously going to be important for us to arrive at the conclusion and provide a substantive report that would obviously be in the records and would determine whether or not these issues transpired in carrying out our functions.
“Now the Committee takes very seriously issues that have to do with allegations. We owe Nigerians the benefit of doubt in line with our Constitution.
“We owe them a duty of care to ensure that we unravel the facts of the matter before we start to make any assertions.
“We will have to travel out of the country to the United States, to Mexico, to China. I believe considering the amount of borrowing our country is subjected to, 2.4 billion dollars is money, this country seriously needs.
“It’s not something that this House is taking lightly. The leadership is in support of this committee arriving at the truth and the facts.
“Though, these allegations were made two years ago, you can see that this responsible House of the Nigerian people has still deemed it necessary to look into this matter even as we go about our electioneering campaigns.
“It is important to also point out that an American citizen who was also allegedly knowledgeable about these issues is currently in the Ikoyi prison over other infractions he allegedly committed in Nigeria.
There are insinuations that it is not outside this particular matter that informed those issues being brought against him.
“Of course, nobody and country would condone illegality from any national within their shores so there must have been reasons for his incarceration at the moment but I am only conveying to Nigerians the allegations that it was not also unconnected with the revelations that he had to provide with regards to this matter.
“We want to assure all whistleblowers who have revelations to provide to this committee that their information would be treated in the strictest level of confidence as it is done all over the world in other climes.
“Where these crude oil sales allegedly took place, those who were involved, who claimed they were entitled to some percentage of the amount when these sales tool place, they are being very helpful in providing us with the names of some of the individuals who were allegedly involved; but for sake of confidentiality and seriousness of this matter,we might not be able to divulge that information until we obtain the facts,” Gbilla added.
