Reps summon Ahmed, Malami over missing 48m barrels of oil

DAILY INDEPENDENT

The House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the ‘alleged loss of over $2.4 billion in revenue from illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil export in 2015, including all crude oil exports and sales by Nige­ria from 2014 till date’, has summoned the Finance Minister, Zainab Shamsu­na Ahmed and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, to provide details of status of remittances into the federation ac­count and the Whistle Blower Protec­tion Bill before the House.

The panel which issued the sum­mon on Tuesday at an investigative hearing on the subject matter also slammed Oriental Energy Limited with a one-week ultima­tum to provide all necessary details regarding its involvement in crude oil lifting and sales within the peri­od under review.

Chairman of the ad hoc com­mittee, Hon. Mark Gbillah, from Benue gave the ruling at the end of day one of the investigative hearing in Abuja.

Addressing participants and his colleagues at the hearing, Gbil­lah said the focus of the panel is on the alleged sale of crude in China which was not remitted back to the federation account, as well as oth­er related matters contained in the panel’s terms of reference.

“We are looking at the issues that have to do with allegations of 48 million of crude oil barrels sold in China. We are looking at the is­sue of crude oil export in general from Nigeria for the period under review. We are also looking at the whistleblower revelations and re­coveries, which the Federal Gov­ernment publicly declared that they have made recoveries.