started an all-inclusive investigation into
alleged fraudulent activities of the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,
NNPC, with Vitol and Transfigura
Commodity Trading Firms. This was sequel to a motion entitled Urgent
Need to Investigate the Alleged Connivance
of the Nigerian National Corporation, NNPC,
with Swiss Oil Dealers to Rob Nigeria Billion
of Dollars, moved by Abiodun Balogun (APC,
Ogun State). Balogun, in his prayers, said that the long-
standing allegation of secrecy surrounding
the operations of NNPC and the oil industry
was recently blown open by a new report of
The Berne Declaration, a Swiss non-
government advocacy organisation that gave account of a series of illegal practices
involving NNPC, which also allegedly
connived with major Swiss oil trading
companies to drain Nigeria of billions of
dollars through the sale of crude oil below
the market value. According to him, the report, entitled Swiss
Traders Opaque Deals in Nigeria, further
stated that NNPC has so far duped the
country of 6.8 billion dollars through some
"Letter Box Companies." He noted that "exclusive and
nontransparent" partnerships of Vitol and
Transfigura with NNPC gave them over 36
percent of the market share with NNPC
selling its crude oil at various discounts.
Nigerian records The lawmaker stressed that it was
worrisome to learn that Nigeria is the only
major oil producing nation that sells 100 per
cent of its crude to private traders rather
than in the open market, which would enable
it benefit from the resulting added value with the greatest number of beneficiaries
of export allocations. Also worrisome to Balogun was the fact
NNPC and its subsidiaries have not published
their financial details since 2005. In a unanimous decision thereafter, the
House sustained the motion when subjected
to vote by the Deputy Speaker, Emeka
Ihedioha, who presided over the plenary. It subsequently directed its standing
committees on Petroleum Resources
(Upstream), Petroleum Resources
(Downstream) and Justice to probe all
issues raised and report back within four
weeks. Meanwhile, attempts made earlier by the
Minority Leader Femi Gbajabiamila (APC,
Lagos) to include Committee on Public
Accounts in the probe and another which
came in the form of amendment motion by
Abubakar Momoh (APC Edo) to delete the inclusion of the Justice Committee and
replace it with that of Finance Committee,
were killed by the lawmakers led by Deputy
House Leader, Leo Ogor (Delta PDP). Ogor said it was irrelevant to include the
two committees when the House had
appropriate committees for such
investigations. [Vanguard]
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