Former Chief Financial Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Umar Ajiya, has denied allegations of financial misconduct against the company, saying NNPC and its workers are not thieves.
Ajiya disclosed this at a sitting of the Senate Public Accounts Committee investigating the alleged misappropriation of funds.
The remarks came after allegations by the senator representing Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole, who reportedly described NNPCL as a “house of thieves.”
“There is nothing to hide and there is no misappropriation of funds as being claimed,” Ajiya said.
He also clarified that the sum spent on the company’s incorporation and rebranding was ₦2.9 billion and not ₦5.8 billion.
“We are no thieves,” said Ajiya. It was not ₦5.8 billion but ₦2.9 billion that was used to register NNPC. For the last five or six years I have been coming before this committee and defending the reports of the company.
I need to assure Mr Chairman and distinguished Senators here today and indeed all Nigerians that there is no money missing.
The company released its audited accounts in a bid to be more transparent and counteract public mistrust, said the former CFO.
“We would not have had the guts to publish the audited accounts in the last 44 years if there was actually missing money in NNPC during our time. I want to make it very clear,” Ajiya said.
“The accounts were prepared and never hidden from the public, and sometimes even with the Auditor General of the Federation.
“So, we made it a duty upon us to not only give to the Auditor-General, but also to put it on our website, so that Nigerians can criticise and scrutinise, to get out of the opaqueness and that lack of trust that the public had on NNPC.
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