Nigeria's Finance Minister Dr, Mrs Ngozi Okonji-Iweala, queries NNPC's GMD over unremitted funds of about N8b

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Monday verbally queried the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, over the non-remittance of about N8bn into the Federation Account.

The minister, who was the keynote speaker at the public presentation of the 2009 to 2011 oil and gas physical and process audit report by the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives in Abuja, wondered why the corporation owed the Federal Government such huge amount of money.

The minister, who came in when the event was about rounding up, turned to the NNPC boss during her presentation and said, “Just to cite one or two examples because I know that the people here are the right stakeholders involved with respect to some of the issues; I am looking for the NNPC GMD.”

She was then told that Yakubu had just stepped out.

Okonjo-Iweala, however, continued, “Some of the things that they (NEITI) pointed out, they stated that about N4.48bn was received by the NNPC but has not been remitted, and another about N3.9bn that was received was not also remitted.”

While she was still speaking, the NNPC boss walked in and immediately Okonjo-Iweala said, “GMD, you are welcome back. I was (speaking) on some of the works of NEITI and I said that the right people are assembled here because they (NEITI) pointed out that non-remittance by the NNPC was amounting to about N8bn over a period of time and I think we need to discuss.”

The minister was interrupted by delegates at the event as they cheered her remarks, but she went further, “As the Minister of Finance, I don’t want to put you (Yakubu) so much on the spot here for we are all in it together, but we need to know how this fund is managed.”

Okonjo-Iweala gave an assurance that the findings and recommendations of NEITI would be implemented and indicted firms would be brought to book.

Reacting to the minister’s statement, Yakubu said he was pleased that the corporation had made some progress within the period under review.

“I am glad that the chairman (of NEITI), in his remark, clearly stated that there is a remarkable improvement between the past and today. So, we will get there,” he said.