CNPP Faults NNPC’s N674bn Profit

Peter Uzoho

The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), the umbrella body of all the political parties in the country, has expressed doubt over the N674 billion released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) as its profit after tax for the 2021 financial year.

The CNPP also advocated for an independent investigation of the management of the company and its board members in the last seven years.

NNPC through its Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Mallam Mele Kyari, had declared a profit after tax of N674 billion, which represented 134.8 per cent growth from the N287 billion posted in 2020.

But the CNPP in a statement issued yesterday and signed by its Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, said, ”It is difficult for the NNPC Limited to convince patriotic Nigerians that its declared profits in two years are not manipulated. 

“The CNPP calls for proper investigation of the management of the company and the Board of NNPC over the last seven years, particularly those who approved 2021 audited financial statements, declaring NNPC to have made the unimaginable 134.8 per cent year-on-year profit growth in 2021.”

Stating reasons why the profits being declared annually by NNPC since 2020 were doubtful, the group noted that in 2017, Nigerian lawmakers uncovered alleged $15 billion unremitted oil and gas revenue.

It said the alleged revenue leakage was exposed by the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating the missing $17 billion crude oil and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) revenue when the committee uncovered the $15 billion unremitted revenue into the Federation Account.

It said the trace of the alleged missing fund, believed to have been stolen and diverted to a foreign destination, was contained in two documents submitted by the then Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, at the committee’s sitting.

The CNPP lamented that till date, nobody had been prosecuted and nobody was sacked.

It added: “Again, by 2018, N4 trillion was reported to be unremitted by the NNPC as revealed in 2016 audit report indicating that some revenue collecting agencies in NNPC and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) did not remit any revenue into the Federation account for some months, neither was any explanation given why those months recorded no revenue.

“The audit report highlighted few of the auditor’s discoveries, indicating that the total unremitted revenue as at 1st January 2016 from amounts payable into the Federation Account by NNPC was N3,878,955,039,855.73 (that is, three trillion, eight hundred and seventy-eight billion, nine hundred and fifty-five million, thirty-nine thousand and eight hundred and fifty-five naira).

“Also, the sum of N1,198,138,355,860.30 was due in revenue to the Federation Account out of the total generated in 2016, however, NNPC paid the sum of N1,000,545,058,966.2 resulting in an amount withheld of N197,593,296,894.02. This brought the total amount withheld by NNPC from the Federation Account as at 31 December 2016 to N4,076,548,336,749.75”, the CNPP stated.