The House of Representatives has resolved to constitute an Ad-hoc committee to investigate the whistle-blower`s allegations of the illegal sale of 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude in China in 2015 and the insurance status of the cargo.
The alleged illegal sale reportedly led to a loss of of $2.4 billion loss in revenue to Nigeria.
This followed the adoption of the resolutions of a motion on the “Alleged Loss of over $2.4 Billion in Revenue from Illegal Sale of 48 Million Barrels of Crude Oil Export in 2015 including Crude Oil Exports from 2014 till date” sponsored by the Hon. Isiaka Ibrahim.
The House also resolved to investigate all crude oil exports and sales by Nigeria from 2014 till date with regards to quantity, insurance, revenue generated remittances into the federation accounts or other accounts as well as utilisation of this revenue for the period under review.
It is also going to investigate all proceeds recovered through the Whistle-blowers Policy and the Level of compliance by the Policy.
The House said it was “aware of allegations by a whistle-blower in July 2020 that he had in July 2015 and in response to the current administration’s whistle-blower policy brought to the attention of a committee purportedly set up by the President for the recovery of missing crude oil exports, the existence of 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude oil in storage at several ports in China ostensibly under the authorization of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the intention of parties in China and the NNPC to sell this cargo,” the motion said.
It said it was also aware that the whistle-blower claimed that the committee, which comprised very high-ranking officials of the administration and NNPC (some of whom he held meetings with) carried out an investigation and confirmed the existence of this cargo, but he discovered in October 2015 that the sale of this cargo had been initiated through unofficial channels and the eventual refusal of the committee to honour their agreement to pay 5 percent value of the cargo in line with the terms of the whistle-blower policy.
The House worried that the allegations that the entire cargo of 48 million barrels of Bonny Light Crude was sold without the proceeds being remitted to the coffers of the country, which translated to a loss to the Nigerian State of over $2.4 billion considering the 2015 global average crude oil price of $52 per barrel.
It said more than two years after these allegations came to the fore and the uncertainty surrounding the required insurance of these crude exports, it becomes imperative to ascertain the actual details of all previous crude exports from Nigeria from 2014 till date with regards to quantity, sale, insurance, revenue generated, payment into the Federation Account and how these proceeds were utilised.
Dominica Nwabufo
