The All Progressives Congress (APC) has
alerted on plans by the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to move
$1.2 billion from banks to the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to cover up
unremitted funds.
The party in a statement issued in Lagos
yesterday by its national publicity
secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, renewed
its call on the federal government to
probe the whereabouts of the dividends
paid to the NNPC by the Nigeria Liquefied
Natural Gas Company Limited (NLNG), as
well as the taxes paid to the FIRS
Federation Account prior to the latest
payment in June 2015.
APC said the move by the NNPC is a
panic reaction to the exposure by the
party (APC) that over $4 billion dollars
are missing in past dividends paid to the
NNPC by the NLNG.
‘’Whereas NLNG’s dividends are paid to
NNPC’s account with JP Morgan, from
where they are supposed to be paid into
the Federation Account in accordance with
the law, some unscrupulous officials of
the corporation have apparently been
moving such funds to local banks so they
can collect huge commissions on them.
‘’Now that the cat has been let out of the
bag, they have started moving the funds
from the banks to the CBN. We believe
what we are seeing now is just a tip of
the iceberg, hence the need for the
authorities to call the NNPC officials to
give accounts of the paid NLNG dividends
to date,’’ APC said.
The party said any delay in calling the
officials to account for the dividends may
give them enough time to cover their
tracks, in addition to the dangers posed
to the banks – and by extension the
economy – by the sudden withdrawal of
such a huge fund from the NNPC
accounts with them.
‘’The top officials of the NNPC and others
who met on Monday and decided to
withdraw the $1.2 billion from the
corporation’s account to the CBN must
be asked a number of questions, including
their motive for the decision and the
whereabouts of the commissions paid on
such funds,’’ it said.
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