The House of Representatives alleged yesterday said that the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, was in receipt of cash accruing from the sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil in a China transaction without remitting same to the federation account.
Chairman of the ad hoc committee investigating the alleged loss of over $2.4 billion in revenue from the illegal sale of 48million barrels of crude oil export in 2015, including all crude oil exports and sales by Nigeria from 2014 till date, Mark Gbillah, gave the hints while addressing invitees at a public hearing of the panel.
Gbillah, who observed that the public hearing was a consequence of intelligence from a whistle-blower, disappointed that Malami and other officials of the government earlier called to the public hearing were missing.
Hence, the committee issued a summons to them for a presence at a later date to explain the matter of crude oil sales and the loss of approximately $2.4 billion in income.
Besides from Malami, those called include the Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission, NEITI, oil and gas businesses who participated in export, and Oriental Energy Ltd.
Oriental Energy was given a week within which to present all essential data about its role in crude oil lifting and sales throughout the time under consideration.
Gbillah said: “We are examining at the problems that have to do with claims of 48 million of crude oil barrels traded in China. We are looking at the topic of crude oil export in general from Nigeria for the time under examination.
”We are also looking into the whistleblower discoveries and recoveries, which the federal government officially acknowledged that they have made recoveries.
“It’s regrettable that the Minister of Finance is not here, the Attorney General of the Federation is not here.
“This is a formal request from the committee that they should come before this committee since they have received a formal invitation to do so. And a lot of what we have to explore in reference to the whistleblower policy is within the Ministry of Finance and the Attorney General of the Federation.
“There are replies obtained from the accountant general’s office which demonstrate that the Minister of Finance has been sanctioning payments to whistleblowers in percentages at variance with what the policy specifies they should be paid.
“There have been claims of the Attorney General being involved also in the receiving of monies from outside the nation without these amounts returned into the federation account, in keeping with stipulations of the constitution.
“There have been claims that there has been expenditure from these recoveries done in utter contravention of the requirements of the constitution.”
He explained that agencies of government manage their Treasury Single Account, TSA, and make expenditures without recourse to the CBN.
“The CBN issued an official response to this committee explaining that the agencies operate their Treasury Single Account, TSA, and make expenditures from these accounts without recourse to the CBN.
“This is something that’s worrying for the CBN to announce before us because we are aware of constitutional requirements that indicate that every money flowing to the federation must be remitted into the federation account.
“So, if there are recovery being made through whistleblowers, these amounts ought to be remitted into the account of the federation as required by law.
“So, we are inviting the Minister of Finance, the Attorney General of the Federation, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, and stakeholders in the implementation of the whistleblower policy to appear before the committee to provide clarification on the operation of this policy and the approvals being made by the finance minister.
Protestors storm NASS
Meanwhile, a group of protestors, known as the George Uboh Whistleblowers Network, led by one Peter Umoh, assaulted the front entrance of the National Assembly, protesting against the setting up of the investigative panel.
Raising banners with various slogans against the committee’s meeting, the group stated the panel did not follow due procedure and called on the panel to suspend its deliberations promptly.
“The whistleblowers who gave Mark Gbillah information on the stolen crude did not file any petition to the National Assembly for any investigation or hearing, neither were they summoned as witnesses to testify at the hearing.
“Because Gbillah did not follow due process, the claimed public hearing by the ad hoc committee is a charade premised on unilateral action driven by greed. Consequently, we the whistleblowers at this demonstration, authoritatively state that the National Assembly does not hear or deliberate on any subject in court.
“Two different competent courts of jurisdictions, are already handling the case filed against the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, 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.”
