Senate Summons Adio, NEITI Boss over Non-remittance of N1tn by NNPC

 Tinubu’s wife accuses Saraki of demoting her
By Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja

The Senate yesterday summoned the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Mr. Waziri Adio, to brief it on all he knows about whopping sum of over N1 trillion oil revenue said to have been remitted between 2005 and 2013 by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Moving a motion on the urgent need to look into the NEITI 2013 oil, gas and solid minerals’ audit report, Senator Tijjani Kaura (Zamfara North), said the money was stolen in NNPC as reflected in the audit report that was presented to Senate President Bukola Saraki last Monday.
The Senate therefore resolved that the NEITI boss must appear before it and brief it on not only the missing funds but also the cause of the leakages.
Giving a breakdown, Kaura said details of the 2013 audit and financial report of activities in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry showed that Nigeria made $58. 07 billion from its hydrocarbon industry that year.
He said while the sum of N33.86 billion was realised from solid minerals’ sector in 2013, the sum of $3.8 billion and N358.3 billion were outstanding revenues from the NNPC and its subsidiaries. “These outstanding payments were dues from unpaid consideration from divested oil mining leases from NNPC to NPDC and cash call refunds by the National Petroleum Investment and Management Services,” he said.
Kaura said it was disturbing that NNPC failed to remit $12.9 billion paid by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) to the federation account between 2005 and 2013, adding that the NEITI report showed that the country lost $5.966billion and N20.4 billion in the oil sector from the operation of Offshore Processing Agreement (OPA)  by NNPC in its crude oil swap transaction.
He also said the Senate was disturbed that the sum of $599.98 million was reported in the audit as an underpayment to the Federation Account from petroleum profit taxes and royalties by oil and gas companies by using different pricing methodology.
Kaura said looking into the report very closely had become very imperative because NEITI was created by an Act of the National Assembly in 2007 to ensure due process and transparency in the payments made by all extractive industries company to the federal government.
He also said the Act empowered NEITI to monitor and ensure accountability in the revenue receipts of the federal government from extractive industry companies and as well eliminate all forms of corrupt practices in the determination, payment receipts and posting of revenue accruing to the federal government from extractive industry companies, among other objectives.
Also yesterday, Senator representing Lagos Central senatorial district, Oluremi Tinubu, accused Saraki of demoting her by assigning her to second the motion for approval of votes of proceedings for June 1, 2016.
She claimed that by being called upon to second the motion moved by Senator Andy Uba (Anambra South), an opposition senator, she had been demoted as she claimed that as a member of the ruling party, she was superior to Uba, a minority senator.
Boasting and exalting herself,  Tinubu said she should have been the one to move the motion while Uba should have seconded it. But Saraki did not dignify her with a response as he watched motion as it was moved haphazardly.