The House of Representatives on Tuesday launched a probe of a whistleblower`s allegations that 48 million barrels of Bonny Light crude was illegally sold in China in 2015.
The alleged sale reportedly led to a loss of $2.4 billion in revenue
The House also resolved to investigate all crude oil exports and sales from 2014 till date with regards to quantity, insurance, revenue generated, remittances into the federation accounts or other accounts, and utilisation.
It is also going to investigate all proceeds recovered through the Whistleblowers Policy and the Level of compliance by the Policy.
This followed the adoption of the resolutions of a motion sponsored by Isiaka Ibrahim.
The House said it was “aware of allegations by a whistleblower in July 2020 that he had in July 2015 and in response to the current administration’s whistleblower policy brought to the attention of a committee purportedly set up by the President for the recovery of missing crude oil exports, the existence of 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude oil in storage at several ports in China ostensibly under the authorisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the intention of parties in China and the NNPC to sell this cargo.
It said it was also aware that the whistleblower claimed that the committee, which comprised very high-ranking officials of the administration and NNPC (some of whom he held meetings with) carried out an investigation and confirmed the existence of this cargo.
But he discovered in October 2015 that the sale of this cargo had been initiated through unofficial channels, with the eventual refusal of the committee to honour their agreement to pay 5 percent value of the cargo in line with the terms of the whistleblower policy.
The House is worried about the allegations that the entire cargo of 48 million barrels of Bonny Light Crude was sold without the proceeds being remitted to the coffers of the country.
This, it said, meant a loss of over $2.4 billion considering the 2015 global average crude oil price of $52 per barrel.
Source: The Nation
