Rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of failing to remit over $20.2 billion since 1999.
“Instead of piling up external loans, the federal government should be compelled by the Nigerian people to embark on the immediate recovery and repatriation of hundreds of billions of dollars from the NNPC.”
Falana said this in Lagos, yesterday, at a National Seminar on Promoting Transparency and Accountability in the Recovery of Stolen Assets in Nigeria: Agenda for Reform, organised by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), in collaboration with Ford Foundation, USA.
Falana continued: “Transparency and accountability are inter-connected to the application of economic, political and administrative management of the affairs of a state.
“The exercise of these affairs is that they must be seen to be exercised by the citizens of a state.
“Where a government parastatal such as the NNPC is said to have failed to remit oil revenue to the tune of $20 billion, issues of good transparency and governance becomes a crucial issue.
“The recovery of our looted wealth should also be extended to the few Nigerians who have been indicted in the Panama and Paradise papers. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Federal Inland Revenue Service should recover appropriate taxes from offshore companies set up by such individuals.”
Falana called on President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to “comply with the order of the Federal High Court which has directed the federal government to account for the loot recovered since 1999.
“It is undoubtedly clear that the governments of western countries and the United Arab Emirates are not going to co-operate with Nigeria, in the repatriation of the country’s loot unless the federal government is prepared to adopt appropriate diplomatic and legal measures.
“The government of the United States has filed copious objections to the suit filed by Nigeria in Jersey, for the recovery of over $300 million of the (General Sani) Abacha loot. The gravamen of the objection is that the fund be released to the United States to manage on behalf of Nigeria.
“In the same vein, Switzerland has insisted that $321 million of the Abacha loot would not be repatriated to Nigeria unless the World Bank would be allowed to monitor the disbursement of the fund. Such patronising attitudes of western governments cannot be justified having regard to the fact that they had connived with a few unpatriotic Nigerian public officials in the grand looting of the treasury of Nigeria…
“The point I am struggling to make is that the limited gains recorded by the Buhari administration in the fight against corruption are a tip of the iceberg, in view of the massive capital flight that is legitimised by market forces.
“Convinced that the federal government was chasing the shadow in the fight against corruption I have had cause to petition the EFCC to open allegations of corruption which border on crimes against humanity. In the said petition I alleged as follows: From five cycles of independent audit reports covering 1999-2012 the National Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative revealed that NNPC, some oil companies and certain agencies of the federal government have withheld $20.2 billion from the Federation Account.
“In 2006, the Central Bank of Nigeria removed $7 billion from the country’s external reserves and placed same as deposit in 14 Nigerian banks.
“In 2008, the CBN gave a bailout of N600 billion ($4 billion) to the same banks. Up till now, the CBN has failed to recover $11 billion from the banks.”
“On September 6, 2016, the NNPC announced that arrangements had been concluded to recover $9.6 billion in over-deducted tax benefits from joint venture partners on major capital projects and oil swap contracts.
“The NNPC is said to have recovered $9.6 billion but has not same remitted same into the Federation Account…”
The seminar was attended by Senior Program Officer Foundation, Eva Kouka, Linda Ochiel of Ford Foundation, Sonia Warner, DFID, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, Osai Ojigho Adeniyi Kayode of Open Government Partnership, Senior Assistant on Prosecution to President Muhammadu Buhari, Obono Obla and Oluseun Onigbinde of BudgIT, among others. The Attorney General of the Federation Abubakar Malami was represented while Bola Oyebamiji, commissioner for finance represented Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola.
|Sun
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