The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said it is not yet in a position to confirm or deny the alleged improper loans to the federal government.
Media report yesterday quoted Reuters as alleging that the federal government was owing the NNPC for improper, informal loans used to cover a range of expenses, from a presidential helicopter to maritime security.
But when LEADERSHIP contacted the NNPC yesterday, the corporation’s acting spokesperson Mr. Fidel Pepple said as far as the NNPC was concerned, the story was still a newspaper story to which its management could not yet confirm or deny.
He explained that the NNPC could only take a position concerning the report after conducting an in-house investigation to verify the authenticity of the claim.
‘’We cannot confirm or deny the report now. It is still a newspaper story. We have to do our own in-house investigation about it before taking a position,’’ Pepple said.
‘’We will definitely make our position known after our investigations and then we will make an announcement,’’ he added.
According to Reuters, the audit report, which indicted the NNPC of giving informal loans to the federal government, was prepared by an external organisation which was given access to the NNPC’s accounts as part of a government effort to improve transparency at the corporation.
According to the report, there are outstanding debts owed to the NNPC by a number of ministries and state agencies. The NNPC was alleged to have paid for a $14 million presidential helicopter, and is owed $106 million by the state power firm and another $124 million by a maritime security agency.
State governors are presently threatening to take the federal government to court over illegal deductions of oil revenues that should be shared among the three tiers of government, while the NNPC needs its own funds to pay for joint venture oil deals with foreign oil companies, some of which are dormant due to a lack of state investment.
Experts have warned that Nigeria risks its two million barrel per day oil production declining in the next few years if it fails to reduce political uncertainty, corruption and criminality in the system.
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