By Omoniyi David
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project SERAP has taken the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited NNPCL to court over its failure to account for the alleged missing N825 billion and 2.5 billion dollars meant for refinery rehabilitation and other oil-related revenues.
This was disclosed in a statement on Sunday by SERAP’s Deputy Director Kolawole Oluwadare.
Filed last Friday at the Federal High Court in Lagos with suit number FHCLMISC72225 the legal action seeks an order of mandamus compelling NNPCL to explain the missing funds recover them and remit them to the Federation Account.
SERAP is also asking the court to direct NNPCL to identify and hand over those responsible to relevant anti-corruption agencies including EFCC and ICPC.
The case follows revelations in the 2021 audited report by the Auditor General of the Federation published in November 2024 which flagged several unaccounted oil revenues and expenditures.
Businessman Aliko Dangote also recently said the NNPCL refineries may never function again despite over 18 billion dollars already spent on them.
According to the report over 82.9 billion naira from crude oil and gas sales between 2020 and 2021 meant for refinery repairs was not accounted for.
About 343 billion naira deducted from domestic crude sales for pipeline maintenance was unexplained.
Another 83.6 billion naira from joint venture income between 2016 and 2020 was withdrawn from a CBNNNPC account without justification.
A total of 204.8 billion naira was deducted from oil royalties due to the former Department of Petroleum Resources without explanation.
Over 3.7 billion naira was reportedly paid to a company for PMS shortfall but lacked proper documentation.
In addition 28.6 billion naira in bridging allowance from NNPC Retail in 2021 remains unaccounted for and 13.5 billion naira owed by major marketers is still unpaid.
NNPCL also failed to remit 29.6 million dollars in royalties and has not recovered 2.2 billion dollars and 48.2 billion naira owed by oil companies.
SERAP argued that these failures reflect a serious disregard for the Constitution transparency laws and Nigeria’s international anti-corruption obligations.
The group noted that most Nigerians have not benefited from the country’s oil wealth while NNPCL continues to operate without adequate accountability.
No date has been fixed for the court hearing.
