By Ismail Auwal
The House of Representatives has demanded the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to account for the sum of N1.3 trillion deducted from Federation Account in 2017 without approval.
Hon Busayo Oluwole Oke, Chairman of the House Public Accounts Committee, stated this when Reprentatives of the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Ezeh Ekwuemeh, appeared before the Committee on unauthorized deduction from Federation account by revenue collecting agencies in that year.
Oke said it was improper that NNPC could take the money and no questions were asked then by the appropriate government agencies.
“They just took the money and nobody asked questions. Even the Accountant General of the Federation didn’t ask questions. NNPC has to account for the money. Aside illegally taking the money, which violates section 162 of the constitution, they should rather account. What did they do with the money?”
Recall that the Committee had insisted last week that all the 18 subsidiaries of the Corporation must appear before it unfailingly within two weeks over the various Audit queries raised against them by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation over the years
According to Oke, “when we ask your subsidiaries to cause appearance, it is pursuant to section 88 and 89 of the constitution. We want to hear from them and obtain evidences from them because they are subsidiaries and there are chief executive officers.
“We have queries against NAPIMS. Yes, NAPIMS reports to you, but it is our own right in this parliament to determine how we conduct our own business. We have a mystery to cure. We want to be able to ask the MD of Warri Refinery or the MD of Kaduna Refinery questions because there is queries from the Auditor General against them.
“I am from the corporate world and would have agreed with you. But when the Auditor General of the Federation specifically listed agencies, they must cause appearance before this committee. DPR has been here and have answered all their queries.
“Our ruling is that all subsidiaries under NNPC should cause appearance within two weeks. We don’t want to engage any agency of government in mudslinging. Members of the public are asking us why we have not laid our report” he concluded.
