N210tn missing funds: Why NNPCL snubbed Nigerian Senate – Segun

Chief Financial Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, Dapo Segun, has explained why the management of the state-owned oil firm snubbed the Senate Committee on Public Accounts summons on Thursday over the company’s N210 trillion missing funds in its audited financial statement spanning from 2017 to 2023.

Segun said the management of NNPCL was in a managerial retreat on Thursday.

The CFO’s explanation was contained in a letter read by the Chairman, Aliyu Wadada, on Thursday.

In the letter from Segun, dated June 25, Segun requested a two-month extension to prepare necessary documents and responses.

“Having carefully reviewed your request, we hereby request your kind consideration to reschedule the engagement for a period of two months from now to enable us to collate the requested information and documentation,” the statement partly reads.

DAILY POST reports that despite the summons by the Red Chamber on Thursday, no officials or external auditors from NNPCL showed up.

Consequently, the committee issued a 10-day ultimatum, demanding that NNPCL top executives appear before the panel by July 10 or face constitutional sanctions.

The lawmakers further rejected the request for a two-month extension by Segun.

Speaking, the Chairman of the Senate Public Accounts Committee, Aliyu Wadada, said it was unacceptable for a company like NNPCL to request two months to respond to questions from its own audited statements.

“For an institution like NNPCL to ask for two months to respond to questions from its own audited records is unacceptable,” Wadada stated.

Recall that Wadada’s led Senate Committee revealed that N210 was missing from NNPCL according to the state-owned oil firm’s audited statements.

However, Segun had explained that calls were requested by joint venture (JV) partners and settlement to the JVs.

But Segun’s response on the N210 trillion missing funds from NNPCL did not settle well with the lawmakers, as Nigerians, including Transparency International Nigeria, demanded a thorough probe.