$3.12bn NLNG Dividends: Senate Asks CBN, NNPC to Submit Details of Withdrawals

• $3.12bn NLNG Dividends: Senate Asks CBN, NNPC to Submit Details of Withdrawals

The Senate Committee on Gas has directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Central Bank of Nigeria to submit within one week, the schedules of the 45 withdrawals made from the account of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas from 1999 till date.

The senate panel, which is probing the alleged mismanagement of the NLNG dividends’ accounts, asked the two federal agencies to specifically include the 22 schedules of dividend payments and withdrawals from May 2015 without the National Assembly approval.

The Chairman of the committee, Senator Bassey Akpan instructed the representatives of the two major institutions to include the process for the withdrawals and the authorising institutions in their submissions.

Akpan said, “We want the NNPC to supply all the withdrawals on the NLNG accounts and all the supporting documents.

“The account belongs to Nigerians but you are running it in trust for the nation. We want details of the 22 withdrawals made which amounted to $3.12bn as well as other withdrawals which are 45 in all from 1999 till date.

“The CBN should also include in its submission, details of other individuals and institutions who also gave orders for withdrawals apart from the NNPC.”

Both the Chief Financial Officer of the NNPC, Isiaka Abdulrazaq and the acting Director, Banking Services department of the CBN, Christopher Olomukoro, told the senate panel that the Minister of Finance also gave directives for withdrawals from the account.