6th November, 2018
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday set up a committee to investigate the alleged unauthorized withdrawal of $1.05 billion by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, from the account of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas company, NLNG.
Senator Bassey Akpan had raised the issue on the floor of the Senate during Plenary session after citing Orders 43 and 95 of the Upper Chamber’s rule.
Akpan brought the attention of the Senate to various emails and complaints from the general public on the unauthorized withdrawal of $1.05 billion by NNPC from the NLNG Account.
“I ask that the Senate Committee on Gas immediately investigate this matter,” he said.
Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan, in his contribution said an ad-hoc committee had earlier been set up to investigate the $3.5 billion NNPC Subsidy use and that the matter should be committed to the same committee to investigate instead of handing over the matter to the Gas committee.
“An adhoc committee was set up to investigate the $3.5 billion NNPC Subsidy use. The particular issue of $1.05 that Nigeria took from NLNG came up. I don’t think the Senate committee on Gas should investigate this; we are doing that,” he said.
Senator Emmanuel Paulker submitted that “The Ad- Hoc Committee that was set up should carry on with their work, while the Committee on Gas should also investigate the matter.”