Paschal Emeka, Abuja
The House of Representatives has concluded plans to investigate the whistle-blower’s allegations concerning the illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil in China in 2015.
This follows a motion of urgent public importance moved at plenary on Tuesday by Hon. Isiaka Ibrahim on the alleged loss of over $2.4 Billion in revenue from illegal sale of 48 Million barrels of crude oil export in 2015 including Crude Oil exports from 2014 till date.
Hon. Isiaka Ibrahim in the motion draw the attention of his colleagues to allegations by a whistleblower in July 2020 that he had in July 2015 and in response to the current administration`s whistleblower policy brought to the attention of a Committee purportedly set up by the President for the recovery of missing crude oil exports, the existence of 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude oil in storage at several ports in China ostensibly under the authorization of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the intention of parties in China and the NNPC to sell this cargo.
“Also aware that the whistleblower claimed that the Committee, which comprised very high-ranking officials of the administration and NNPC (some of whom he held meetings with) carried out an investigation and confirmed the existence of this cargo, but he discovered in October 2015 that the sale of this cargo had been initiated through unofficial channels and the eventual refusal of the Committee to honour their agreement to pay 5% value of the cargo in line with the terms of the whistleblower policy.
“Worried by the allegations that the entire cargo of 48 million barrels of Bonny Light Crude was sold without the proceeds being remitted to the coffers of the country, which translated to a loss to the Nigerian State of over $2.4 billion considering the 2015 global average crude oil price of $52 per barrel.
“Concerned that more than two years after these allegations came to the fore and the uncertainty surrounding the required insurance of these crude exports, it becomes imperative that the House needs to ascertain the actual details of all previous crude exports from Nigeria from 2014 till date with regards to quantity, sale, insurance, revenue generated, payment into the Federation Account and how these proceeds were utilized.
To this end, the House resolved to constitute an Ad-hoc committee to investigate the whistleblower`s allegations of the illegal sale of 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude in China in 2015 and the insurance status of the cargo.
investigate all crude oil exports and sales by Nigeria from 2014 till date with regards to quantity, insurance, revenue generated, remittances into the federation accounts or other accounts as well as utilization of this revenue for the period under review.
Investigate all proceeds recovered through the Whistleblowers Policy and the Level of compliance by the Policy and mandate the Committee to report back within 4 weeks, for further legislative action.
Recall that the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed last week announced that the Whistleblowers’ policy has lost momentum.
This particular allegation may have contributed to the bias most Nigerians noticed in the implementation of the policy. With few months to the 2023 general elections, one wonders if the House can carryout the investigation to a logical conclusion.