The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has rejected petroleum importation figures presented by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) for 2022 and 2023 over significant discrepancies with records supplied by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
The committee resolved to summon the heads of NMDPRA, NNPCL and the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) to a joint meeting to reconcile the conflicting figures and investigate possible irregularities.
The discrepancies emerged on Tuesday when NMDPRA officials appeared before the committee to respond to queries raised against the agency in NEITI’s 2021–2023 Oil and Gas Industry Audit Report.
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The Authority Chief Executive of NMDPRA, Mallam Rabiu Abdullahi Umar, was represented at the hearing by a Deputy Director, Uzoamaka Ugwu-Ojobe.
In her presentation, Ugwu-Ojobe maintained that the agency stood by its records of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, imported into the country during the period under review, despite differences with NNPCL’s figures.
“We stand by 3.29 billion litres of PMS as the volume imported in 2022 and 6.02 billion litres as the volume imported in 2023, against 6.27 billion litres recorded by NNPCL in 2022 and 3.88 billion litres in 2023. The slight disparities are being looked into for possible reconciliation,” she said.
The explanation did not satisfy committee members, who described the discrepancies as significant and disturbing and called for an urgent investigation.
A member of the committee, Senator Abdul Ningi, representing Bauchi Central, faulted NMDPRA’s description of the differences as slight, arguing that the variations were too substantial to be treated casually.
“The disparities in records of PMS importation between NMDPRA and NNPCL in 2022 and 2023, as stated in the NEITI Oil and Gas Industry Audit Report of 2021 to 2023, are too wide to be described as slight or being looked into without the seriousness required,” Ningi said.
Similarly, Senator Dayo Faduyile, representing Ondo South, expressed concern over the conflicting figures, saying they raised questions about the credibility of the records presented by the two agencies.
Faduyile said the discrepancies left considerable room for suspicion that something might be amiss and called for a more thorough examination of the figures.
Another committee member, Senator Anietan Bassey, representing Akwa Ibom North-East, rejected NMDPRA’s defence and called for a comprehensive investigation to establish the reasons for the differences.
He said the conflicting records raised concerns about whether Nigerians were being shortchanged in the management and reporting of petroleum imports.
“Mr Chairman and very distinguished colleagues, these questionable records of volume of PMS importation by the two agencies must be thoroughly investigated to save Nigerians from being yearly shortchanged and expose those milking the country dry,” Bassey said.
Following the exchanges, the committee, chaired by Senator Hassan Dankwabo, representing Gombe North, rejected the explanation offered by NMDPRA’s representative and resolved to convene a joint meeting involving the three agencies.
The committee said the meeting would seek explanations for the wide discrepancies between the importation figures submitted by NMDPRA and NNPCL, as contained in the NEITI audit report.
“In view of the unacceptability of presentations made by the representative of NMDPRA on queries raised against it in the NEITI Oil and Gas Audit Report covering 2021 to 2023, specifically on the volume of PMS imported within the years under review, this committee resolved to summon the heads of NMDPRA, NNPCL and NEITI for reasons behind the wide disparities,” Dankwabo said.
The proposed meeting is expected to give the agencies an opportunity to explain the differences in their records and determine whether the figures can be reconciled or further investigation into suspected irregularities is necessary.
