A coalition of professionals under the Ajiyya Solidarity Forum has dismissed allegations that about 210 trillion naira ($210 trillion naira equivalent cited locally) is missing from the accounts of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, describing the claim as politically motivated and “mathematically impossible.”
Speaking to journalists Thursday, the forum’s national coordinator, Usman Hamza, said the allegation made by the chairman of the Senate Public Accounts Committee, Ahmed Wadada, was misleading.
Wadada had recently claimed that the state-owned oil company could not account for about 210 trillion naira.
“Senator Wadada’s claim of N210 trillion ‘unaccounted for’ funds is a mathematical impossibility designed to shock the public,” Hamza said.
He argued that the figure does not align with Nigeria’s fiscal reality, noting that the country’s entire 2024 national budget was about 28.7 trillion naira.
“To suggest that a single entity ‘lost’ nearly eight times the national budget is an insult to the intelligence of Nigerians,” he said.
The forum also condemned reported threats of arrest warrants against former officials of the oil company, including former chief financial officer Umar Ajiya, describing the move as part of a coordinated campaign of political blackmail.
According to the group, the Senate committee may have misinterpreted financial figures by combining accrued expenses and receivables in a way that falsely suggests missing funds.
Hamza said the committee may have improperly netted about 103 trillion naira in accrued expenses, largely linked to joint venture liabilities, with about 107 trillion naira in receivables owed to the company.
“Labeling money owed to a company as ‘missing funds’ is a professional travesty,” he said.
The controversy follows an ongoing review of the financial records of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited by the Senate Public Accounts Committee.
The forum said the allegations ignore broader financial and structural reforms undertaken by the national oil company in recent years.
Hamza said Ajiya’s tenure coincided with the transition of the oil firm into a commercial entity under the Petroleum Industry Act, a reform that ended decades of opaque financial reporting.
According to the forum, the transition saw the publication of the company’s first audited financial statements in 43 years.
The group also defended the 5.9 billion naira cost incurred during the transition of the former state corporation into a limited liability company, saying the funds covered complex legal and structural reforms required for the transformation.
The forum warned that politicizing the Senate’s oversight role could harm Nigeria’s reputation with international investors.
“Using the Senate’s chambers to pursue personal vendettas damages Nigeria’s reputation with international investors,” Hamza said.
The group called on the leadership of the Nigerian Senate to launch an independent ethics investigation into what it described as an alleged demand for bribes linked to the oversight process.
Hamza urged lawmakers to stop what he described as harassment of officials who have already submitted technical responses to the committee.
“Public accountability should be pursued through a sober forensic review of facts, not through sensational claims and phantom numbers,” he said.
