Nigerian House votes to investigate NNPC

Nigeria’s House of Representatives voted Tuesday to investigate alleged payment shortfalls from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), local and international media reported.

Last month the Nigerian finance minister had called the NNPC’s revenue remittances to the government “unacceptable” considering higher oil prices, Reuters reported. The House cited an “under remittance of about NGN 100 billion [USD 327.65 million]” when it voted to investigate the matter through an ad-hoc committee.

“While the process of audit and reconciliation of accounts is on, a lot of accusations of short payments and non-remittances are usually traded, we endeavour to keep our cool on these allegations because we know that we remit whatever is due to the federation account,” group managing director Maikanti Baru said about similar allegations from the Senate in May. The NOC has not yet commented publicly on the current probe.

The committee’s report is expected in two weeks.