Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
Shelll Petroleum and 19 others would be facing legislative inquiry for their alleged indebtedness to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The 20 affected oil companies jointly owe the NDDC N72 billion and $73 million. The federal government also owes the agency a whopping N1.2 trillion.
The energy companies are expected to face a joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on the NDDC following a resolution to investigate them.
Those expected to explain what they know about the alleged debts are Shell, the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), Conoil, Allied Energy, Shebah Express Petroleum, Atlas Petroleum, Frontier Oil, Seven Energy Limited, Belma Oil Producing Limited, AITECO Exploration and Production, Dubrin Oil, and Continental Oil and Gas.
Others are Enageed Resources Limited, New Cross exploration and Production, Pan Ocean Oil Corporation Nigeria Limited, Nigeria Petroleum Development Company and Prime Exploration and Production Company.
The invitation also extends to the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to offer explanations where necessary as to what they know regarding the transactions.
On Tuesday, co-chairman of the joint committee, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who is also House of Representatives committee chairman on NDDC, stated that the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris and Auditor General of the Federation, Anthony Ayine, will also testify before the panel.
Speaking on the monies owed by these oil companies, Mr Tunji-Ojo said, “These companies we are investigating are owing the NDDC huge sums of money, which when remitted to it, would improve the fortunes of the people of the Niger Delta area.
“By the records we have, a company like Shell Petroleum Development Company is said to owing more than N54.9 billion.”
