The Management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC on Friday provided an informed perspective to the trending media report alleging that the Corporation colluded with some banks to prevent the remittance of $793.2m into the Treasury Single Accounts, (TSA), scheme as directed by the Federal Government.
The NNPC in a release by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu, explained that the allegation is not only misplaced but equally misleading.
He said the Corporation had earlier taken steps to inform the Presidency, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, (AGF) and the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) on the existence of the said accounts prior to the creation of the Federal Government Asset Recovery Account.
The NNPC explained that it would be totally out of place to move the funds to the FG Asset Recovery Account as reported noting that it is unreasonable and sheer waste of funds to pay any agent five percent, whistle blowing fee for the phantom recovery of genuine NNPC funds which had been disclosed to the Presidency, CBN and other relevant stakeholders.
Providing further breakdown on the lodgments, the NNPC said the amount includes: $174.4m domiciled at Diamond Bank, $40.7m in Skye Bank and $16.7m in Keystone Bank bringing the total to $231.8m.
The statement explained that in line with the directive of the Presidency, the apex bank is supervising the remittance of these funds to the CBN TSA Account and it has made great strides in this regard.
The NNPC noted that as an entity with fiduciary responsibility to the government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, its commitment to transparency and accountability remains unwavering.
Similarly, some of the banks have also openly denied the allegation of conniving with the NNPC subsidiaries to hide huge sums in foreign currency away from the TSA.
In a statement by UBA’s group head, marketing and corporate communications, Bola Atta, the bank stated categorically that it has fully remitted all NNPC/NLNG dollar deposits since August 24, 2016.
“We hereby emphasise that none of such funds are currently in the Bank’s books. Our action was further corroborated by a clearance memo published by CBN on its website on same date (http://www.cbn.gov.ng/Out/2016/CCD/UBAPress%20Statement240816.pdf).
“We would like to thank all our customers, business partners and other stakeholders who have reached out to us on account of this judgement.”