Top officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), on Thursday, failed to appear before the Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC) to explain staggering discrepancies amounting to over ₦210 trillion in its audited financial statements spanning 2017 to 2023.
While no executive and external auditors of the NNPCL turned up for the probe, representatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Department of State Services (DSS) were in attendance.
The absence of the oil company’s executives and external auditors provoked the Senate Committee on Public Accounts to declare another 10-day ultimatum for the NNPCL leadership to ‘unfailingly’ appear before the lawmakers.
Meanwhile, a letter dated June 25, seeking permission to be absent from the engagement, was presented and signed by the NNPCL Chief Financial Officer, Dapo Segun, and read to the members of the panel on NNPCL behalf.
The letter read, “We refer to your letter on the subject dated June 24th, 2025. We thank the Senate Public Accounts Committee for the opportunity to engage and for NNPC Limited to provide clarification on the issues highlighted in the letter under reference.
“Having carefully reviewed your request, we hereby request your kind consideration to reschedule the engagement for a period of two months from now to enable us to collate the requested information and documentation.
“Furthermore, members of the Board and the senior management team of NNPC Limited are currently out of the office for a retreat, which makes it difficult to attend the rescheduled session of Thursday, 26th June, 2025.
“While appreciating the opportunity provided and the importance of this engagement, we reassure you of our commitment to the success of this exercise. Please accept the assurances of our highest regards.”
But, the lawmakers dismissed the letter, saying it wasn’t a good excuse for them to shun the hearing.
Addressing the gathering, Committee Chairman, Senator Aliyu Wadada, said, “You all heard what was read in that letter. First and foremost, this committee is not expecting documents from NNPCL today, but rather answers to the 11 questions we raised the last time they were here.
“Secondly, for a corporate body like NNPCL to ask for two months as a period for them to be able to respond to queries that emanated from their own books, I think, is unacceptable.
“For that, this committee is giving NNPCL 10 working days from today to appear before the committee with the relevant answers to the questions earlier issued for this investigation to continue. 10 working days from today will be 10th of July.
“If on that day NNPC does not respond accordingly, then this committee will have no option than to invoke and assert all the powers available to the committee or to the Senate constitutionally. That, in a nutshell, will be termed contempt to the Senate.
“The Nigerian public is waiting to hear from us because this has got to do with public funds.”
The lawmaker representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, Senator Abdul Ningi, also backed the resolution.
Ningi also warned that the current NNPCL Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, should lead the delegation to the Senate for the rescheduled hearing in two weeks.
“He must be in attendance and should be the one to lead the committee, because at that point the committee will not accept any excuses.
“We were magnanimous enough to have granted 10 working days to the NNPCL, which will be on the 10th of July,” he said.
