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The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has again justified the withdrawal of $2.201 billion from the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) fund, saying the corporation has the power and the legal backing to carry out such withdrawal.
It also emerged Saturday that oil marketers under the aegis of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), who have been owed about by N348 billion by the federal government as outstanding payment on petrol subsidy claims, would be paid N236 billion on Friday. That was as DAPPMAN yesterday denied reaching an agreement with the Federal Ministry of Finance on the payment of the N800 billion subsidy arrears.
Chief Financial Officer of NNPC, Mr. Isiaka Abdulrazaq, spoke in defence of the corporation yesterday in Lagos at an interactive session between it and business editors/energy correspondents. Abdulrazaq argued that the controversy arising from the withdrawal was whether the NNPC had the power to withdraw and not that the fund was misappropriated.
He said, “These are all legal issues. NNPC is the shareholder of record representing the interest of the Nigerian people in the joint venture business. The issue around legality is to deal with why or how the NNPC used those funds.
“There are two reasons. First one is, the 2018 Appropriation Act is very clear on this. The second is the Nigeria NLNG Appropriation Act Section 7, sub-section 4(b) makes it very clear. And what the National Assembly is saying is that we don’t have the legal authority to use this fund. We have provided them with those legal authorities and, basically, we will be meeting the committee again sometime next week.”
Abdulrazaq said neither the legislature nor the executive had the power to interpret the constitution when there was confusion arising from legal matters, arguing that section 6 of the Constitution was very clear on that.
Read Full Story: [ThisDay]
