$20 Billion : Now #3.2 Trillion Oil Sales Unremitted By NNPC. Has Sanushi Been Finally Vindicated?

Even with the list containing Nigerian Police, Customs, Prison's Service, Immigration, and Judiciary yet, it is incomplete to call them the most corrupt if one does not make the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) the no 1 on the list .


It is a general knowledge that NNPC is known as the "Fountain of Corruption" in the giant black African country. If corruption visits other government agencies or parastals , that is not the case with the NNPC as the agency is said to "Cohabit with Corruption" in the same room and bed since it's establishment. It is difficult to mention one Group-Managing Director of the corporation who wasn't embroiled or alleged to have indulged in corruption before , during or after his tenure.

Back in 2012, during the oil subsidy removal protest, it became glaring to know that the NNPC was actively involved in the oil subsidy scam . This was something that was a habitual practice in the corporation as even oil marketers who imported little or no oil got paid in huge amounts for their scam based on subsidy claims. The rationale behind that behaviour was based on the premeditated motive to pay the dishonest oil marketers and hence share from their loot. While this existed long before the administration of Dr Goodluck Jonathan , it was in his administration that it reached it's heights .

While the committee set up by the then president Goodluck Jonathan handed over it's report to the president, the findings of the report was not acted upon as the report simply gathered dust and still does till date. It did not take long as exactly two years later the then Central Bank Governor and present Emir of Kano ( Sanushi Lamido Sanushi) raised alarm and announced for all who cared to know that $20b was missing from the nations treasury as the NNPC had failed to remit most of it's oil sales money to the CBN . He did not stop there, as he also said that the corporation was yet to be audited for the past six years. Instead of investigating such allegation , "the messenger became the hunted" as Sanushi was sent on compulsory leave long before the end of his tenure and an immediate but shady audit conducted on the NNPC by a foreign audit firm.

Fast forward to the last two weeks as it is clear that Sanushi was indeed right . This is based on the statement made by the Auditor -General of the Federation .

Samuel Ukure had before the floor of the Senate alledged that #3.2 trillion crude oil sales were not remitted by the NNPC to the CBN which had vindicated Sanushi and confirmed his earlier report  in 2014. If that was the end of the revelation , then it would have not been so bad, as he went on to say that $2.35 million gas sales to NLNG was again diverted to a private escrow account instead of the CBN by NNPC top officials. Also not to be excluded was the $346.2 million gas export sales which was earlier said to have been paid into the Federal Account but was yet to be traced by him or his office (Federation Auditor-General's Office) despite claims by the NNPC that the transfer was successful .

With the states struggling to even pay workers salaries , electricity supply on the low and inflation gradually rising, it it suicidal to think what #3.2 trillion , $2.35 million and $346.2 million could do to help alleviate part of the sufferings of Nigerians.

NNPC maybe has reached it's Waterloo as it must be quickly investigated, cleansened and guilty ones jailed.