Nigerian senate probes Dangote refinery and 13 oil firms over a N135bn case – Business Insider Africa
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Nigerian senate panel is investigating Dangote refinery, Delta govt, and 13 oil firms over alleged misappropriation of N135bn CBN loan.
The senate panel has warned of reporting the oil and gas companies to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) if found guilty of misappropriating the intervention loan.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas Resources, Agom Jarigbe, issued the threat when the beneficiary companies appeared before the committee to explain how they utilized the loan.
Jarigbe, representing Cross River North, noted that his committee observed some companies did not use the funds for their intended purpose.
According to a report by Premium Times, the N135 billion loan was disbursed to 15 oil and gas companies under the Nigeria Gas Expansion Programme intervention fund of the CBN.
Jarigbe stated that NIPCO Gas Ltd secured a loan of N25 billion, NIPCO Plc N5 billion, Hyde Energy Ltd N2 billion, and Lee Engineering and Construction Company N15 billion from the intervention fund. Other companies that benefited include Pinnacle Oil And Gas Fze (N10 billion), Transit Gas Limited (N8 billion), Amalgamated Oil Company Nig Ltd (N5 billion), and Gas Nexus Ltd (N10 billion).
First Modular Gas Systems Limited received N4.3 billion, Novagas Limited (N1 billion), Greenville Liquified Natural Gas Company (N10 billion), and AP LPG Limited (N8 billion).
Dangote Oil Refinery secured N5 billion, Delta State Government (N20 billion), and Mob Integrated Services Limited obtained N2.5 billion.
Nigeria is one of the world’s largest oil producers, but mismanagement and corruption in its oil and gas industry are resulting in the loss of billions of dollars each year.
“The task of the committee is to ensure that the companies actually expended the funds on what they collected it for.
“The observation of the committee is that there are inconsistencies in the process and the committee may not hesitate to involve the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to recover the funds” he said.
“Some of the beneficiaries did not follow the guidelines. For instance, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources is not even aware that the funds had been released.
“The guidelines stated clearly without ambiguity that they are supposed to do evaluation at the ministry before the list of the qualified ones would be sent to the CBN for them to access the loans but that was not done properly,” the senator said.
He stated that a preliminary investigation conducted by the committee indicated that some of the companies have not initiated any projects since they received the loans.
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