Abuja — fortnight ago, the House of Representatives concluded an investigative hearing on the alleged N450 billion debt to the Federation Account by Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. The probe also sought to ascertain the truth or otherwise of other allegations of non-compliance to other laws of the land such as the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, by the corporation.

The hearing was conducted by the House Joint Committee on Finance, Petroleum Resources (Upstream and Downstream) and Gas Resources. The investigative Committee invited several stakeholders in the oil industry including serving and erstwhile chief executives of ministries, parastatals, departments and agencies in the sector to come and provide necessary information that would enable it do a thorough work on their terms of reference. Amongst the prominent persons in attendance during the hearing were: the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, Minister of State, Finance, Mr. Yerima Ngama, Chairman, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, Chief Elias Mbam and the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mr. Austin Oniwon. Others include, the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, former Group Managing Directors of NNPC, Mr. Gaius Obasieke and Funsho Kupolokun.

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