Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has urged President Mohammadu Buhari to prioritise recovery of the $18.1 billion unremitted oil and gas funds from oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria.
In a statement signed by the agency’s head of communications, Ogbonnaya Orji, the Executive Secretary of NEITI, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed said “Our 2012 audit report discovered that total dividend loans and interest repayment from NLNG paid to the NNPC in 2012 was $2.8 billion. However, in the course of NEITI’s audit, NNPC was unable to provide any evidence to show that the funds were remitted to the federation as required by law.
“The total amount received by NNPC from NLNG under the same circumstances which have not been remitted to the Federation Account stands at $11.6billion.
“The position of NEITI is that the whole transaction was not transparent. The federal government needs to carry out a full investigation to ascertain the actual cost of the oil blocks and revenue loss to the federation in the whole transaction.
“It has been the position of NEITI that the oil subsidy regime is fraudulent that should not be allowed to stand any longer, the amount spent so far annually is enough to repair the refineries or even build new ones. Oil subsidy should be removed.”
Ahmed added that the new administration should implement other recommendations contained in NEITI’s independent reports.