The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has formally responded to all 19 questions raised by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts concerning the alleged unaccounted N210 trillion discovered in its audited financial statements covering 2017 to 2023.
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Aliyu Wadada, confirmed this development on Tuesday, saying that the company’s responses had been received and were awaiting presentation before the full committee for consideration.
“NNPCL has provided answers to all the 19 questions, yes, I can confirm that to you. What we are waiting for now is to lay these answers before the committee,” Wadada stated.
While he declined to disclose the content of NNPCL’s responses, Wadada explained that the committee would review them in detail during its next sitting before taking a position.
He said, “They could either be positive or negative. Only a comprehensive review by the committee would determine their adequacy.”
The ongoing probe follows the report of the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation, which flagged N210 trillion in discrepancies in the NNPCL’s books, broken down into N103 trillion in liabilities and N107 trillion in assets yet to be fully reconciled.
The Senate panel had launched the investigation before embarking on its annual recess on July 23 but reconvened briefly on July 29 to question the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Bayo Ojulari, who was appearing for the first time after several earlier invitations.
During that meeting, Senator Wadada clarified that the probe was not an indictment or an accusation of theft, but a constitutional oversight function aimed at clarifying audit queries.
“At no time did this committee say the N210 trillion was stolen or missing. What we are doing is a required investigation into queries raised by the Auditor-General,” he had explained.
The NNPCL boss, Mr. Ojulari, who had only been in office for just over 100 days at the time, requested additional time to thoroughly address the issues.
He had assured the senators that the company would engage both internal and external auditors to provide comprehensive answers.
“I need time to understand the issues myself so I can respond appropriately. I will get a team and engage the external auditors and other relevant groups to ensure the queries are fully addressed,” Ojulari said at the earlier session.
With the company’s responses now submitted, the next step is for the Senate Committee to evaluate them and determine whether the explanations provided sufficiently address the audit concerns raised in the Auditor-General’s report.
