Senate Threatens Arrest Warrant for Mele Kyari, Ajia, Others Over Unaccounted N210 Trillion

The Senate on Thursday summoned the immediate past Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, the Chief Financial Officer, Umar Ajia Isa, and Dr.

Bala Wunti over an unaccounted N210 trillion allegedly expended by the company between 2017 and 2023.
The committee also threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against the summoned former management team of NNPCL if they fail to appear before it on a date to be communicated to them soon. It further expressed concern over why a whopping N5 billion was spent by the national oil company on changing its name from NNPC to NNPCL.
The resolution to summon the immediate past top management team of the NNPCL was reached during the committee’s meeting held on Thursday.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Aliyu Wadada Ahmed (Nasarawa West), who read the resolutions to journalists, explained that the summoned past management team of NNPCL should be led by the incumbent GCEO, Engineer Bayo Ojulari.
Announcing the resolutions one after the other, Senator Wadada said:
“NNPCL should refund the sum of N210 trillion, being the combined sum of N103 trillion and N107 trillion, which were not properly accounted for as contained in the audit reports. NNPCL should and must account for the two figures.
“The second resolution of the committee is that the NNPCL should refund to the treasury all production costs charged against crude oil revenue for the period under review since the NNPC and its subsidiaries, NAPIMS and co., do not directly produce crude oil.
“Three, that the immediate past management of NNPCL and NAPIMS, that is, Mele Kyari as the then GCEO, Umar Ajia Isa as the then CFO, and Bala Wunti as the then GGM, NAPIMS, should and must appear before the committee and be led by the present management with the entire body of the external auditors that served within the period under review.
“Four, that the Auditor General for the Federation should carry out a forensic audit review of the audited financial statements of NNPCL for the period under review in line with Section 85 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999 as amended).”
He added that the committee, as contained in the audit report, wondered how the NNPC spent a whopping sum of N5 billion on changing its name from NNPC to NNPCL.
“This to us in the committee is unacceptable and satisfactory explanations must be given,” he said.
According to him, the committee arrived at the resolutions due to the inability of the NNPCL to provide satisfactory answers to the 19 questions posed to it from queries raised in the audit report.
“NNPCL, as a result of the questions that we asked, responded that the N103 trillion represented cumulative amounts expended by NNPCL Joint Venture partners from JV Cash Calls from 2017. For that, this response is unacceptable and the figure of N103 trillion is still lingering and hanging on NNPC.
“The subsidy receivables, according to the audited financial statement of NNPCL, stood at N107 trillion. As at December 2023, NNPCL recorded N107 trillion as sundry receivables which it claims part of it was owed by some different banks and other entities. When put together, NNPCL needs to properly account for N210 trillion,” he explained.
The committee, however, affirmed its legislative support to the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Federal Government, which it said is doing everything possible to ensure transparency, probity, and accountability in the management of public funds.