Lawmakers Summon Finance Minister, AGF, Others over Whistleblower Policy, $2.4bn Illegal Crude Oil Sale

•Allege Ahmed, Malami shortchanging whistleblowers, not remitting recoveries

•Gbajabiamila laments $10bn revenue loss to oil theft 

•Cabals derailing nation’s progress, says ex-lawmaker 

•Whistleblowers protest, seek end to probe

Udora Orizu in Abuja

Members of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee investigating alleged loss of over $2.4 billion in revenue from illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil export from 2015 till date have summoned the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, to appear before the parliament to give clarification on the operation of the whistleblower policy and approvals being made.

The House had in December 2022 while adopting a motion sponsored by Hon. Ibrahim Isiaka resolved to look into the matter.

At the commencement of the investigative hearing yesterday, in Abuja, relevant stakeholders such as DG NIA, Total, Oriental energy requested for more time to get necessary details before addressing the parliament.

With regards to the issue of crude oil sale, expected to address the lawmakers were the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission, NEITI, Accountant General of the Federation, Oil and Gas companies who operate who operate fuels and engage in export.

Speaking at the hearing, the Chairman of the Ad hoc Committee, Hon. Mark Gbillah explained that the lawmakers were looking at the issues that have to do with allegations of 48 million crude oil barrels sold in China and crude oil export in general from Nigeria for the period under review.

He also said they were also looking at the whistleblowers’ revelations and recoveries, which the federal government had publicly declared that they had made recoveries.

While frowning at the absence of finance minister and her counterpart in Justice Ministry, the lawmaker disclosed that they received responses from the Accountant General’s office which showed that the minister of finance had been approving payments to whistleblowers in percentages at variance with the policy says they should be paid.

He also disclosed that there had been allegations of the Attorney General being involved in the receipt of funds from outside the country without the funds being remitted into the federation account in line with the provisions of the constitution.

Gbillah, further disclosed that they received formal response from the Central Bank of Nigeria indicating that agencies of government operate their Treasury Single Account (TSA) and make expenditure without recourse to the apex bank.

The lawmaker while assuring that the parliament would not allow Nigeria’s Commonwealth to be fritted away, vowed that they would use the necessary instrument to compel the relevant stakeholders to appear.

He said, “This is a formal request from the committee that the Minister of Finance, Minister of Justice and Attorney General to appear before this committee because they have received formal invitation to do so.

“And a lot of what we have to investigate regards to whistleblower policy is saddled within the ministry of finance and the attorney general of the federation.

“There have allegations that there has been expenditure of these recoveries have also been done in complete violation of the provisions of the constitution.

“The CBN made a formal response to this committee indicating that the TSA policy of this administration agencies operate their Treasury Single Account and make expenditure from these accounts without recourse to the CBN.

“This is something that’s alarming for the CBN to declare before us, because we are aware of constitutional provisions that state all revenue accruing to the federation must be paid into the federation account. So if there are recoveries being made from whistleblower these monies need to be paid into the account of the federation as required by law.

“There are certain individuals we need to investigate, certain whistleblowers’ revelations show that from the Paris Fund refund hundreds of millions of dollars were paid into company account without any record of services provided to the country and these are things that needs to be investigated.”

Declaring the hearing open, the Speaker Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila lamented that in January and July 2022 alone, Nigeria lost $10 billion to crude oil theft.

The Speaker who was represented by Hon. Ibrahim Isiaka, further lamented that in the light of dwindling revenue accruing to Nigeria from crude oil sales, it was quite alarming to learn about whistleblower allegations that over $2.4 billion in possible revenue by the country was lost from the sale of 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s crude oil cargoes in China.

He said though these were unverified allegations, the however was on the House of Representatives to carry out a thorough investigation to ascertain the veracity.

While promising whistle-blowers that volunteered information to the parliament of maximum legislative protection and confidentiality, Gbajabiamila said the recommendation of the Committee after its investigation would no doubt, guide the House in making an informed decision in considering the Whistle-Blower Bill currently before it.

Addressing the lawmakers earlier, Federal Commissioner in charge of monitoring and inspection, Code of Conduct Bureau, Agbonayimma Ehiozumu lamented that Nigeria was bleeding as cabals had derailed the wheels of progress of the country.

Ehiozumu who was a member of the 8th National Assembly narrated how a committee was set up to look into this same matter in the past Assembly with the outcome of the investigation submitted to the Committee of the Whole back then.

While frowning at the fact that the matter hasn’t been resolved after so many years, he fingered some agencies such as the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) to be part of the problem.

He urged the lawmakers to move the litigation to the United States of America, claiming that there are people here blocking the process, such as International Oil Companies (IOCs) who allegedly worked with Nigerian lawyers to defraud Nigerians.

He said, “Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), they were owing the federal government, when we investigated this matter. The indebtedness of DPRO as at 30th September 2017 by NPDC, royalty gas was over $4 billion. It will amaze you that NPDC refused to pay this money back to federation account.

“By our intervention they said they have agreed to be paying $10 million every month. But the question was that where are you going to be getting the $10 million that you’re going to be paying back every month.

“What happened to the four billion where did it go. As at then that was when the MD came to my office and threatened me that I should leave this matter. Where is this money now? As at 2017 they had balance of $1.7 billion yet to be paid, have they paid that money till today?”

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, hundreds of George Uboh Whistleblowers’ Network, had stormed the main entrance to the National Assembly to protest against the probe.

The protesters led by Ambassador Joseph Peter Umoh, carried placards with inscriptions denouncing the setting up of the adhoc Committee by the House of Representatives when the crime according to them, is already being litigated against in the court of law .

Addressing journalists, Umoh said as whistleblowers, they blew open the stolen crude oil and illegal sales in China to the parliament and Nigerians generally.

According to him, the lawmakers rather than carry them along in the planned investigation, decided to do it alone, raising suspicion of vested interests.

“The whistleblowers who furnished Hon Mark Gbillah the information germane to the 48 million barrels of crude oil stolen did not file any petition to the National Assembly for any investigation or hearing, neither were they called as witnesses to testify during hearing. Because Gbillah did not follow this sacrosanct due process, the purported public hearing by the ad hoc committee is a sham predicated on unilateral action driven by greed.

“Therefore we the whistleblowers at this protest, authoritatively assert that the National Assembly should does not hear or deliberate on any matter in court. Two different competent courts of jurisdictions, are already handling the case filed against the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari to account for proceeds from the stolen crude oil which are roughly estimated to be $2.4billion at $50 per barrel and $4.8billion at $100per barrel,” he said.