Reps probe alleged missing $60bn petroleum profit tax

The House of Representatives has unveiled plans to conduct investigative public hearing into the sum of $60.3 billion accrued from Petroleum Profit Tax and Royalty revenues, and domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The money was realized between 2004 and 2016.

The resolution was passed during investigate hearing on the petition sent by Fidelis Uzonwani, chattered Accountant with Synergy Resources Nigeria Limited which the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara referred to the Committee on Public Petitions, chaired by Uzoma Nkem-Abonta.

While addressing the Committee, Uzonwani, explained that “from 2004 to 2016, over $60 billion of PPT and royalty revenues were unaccounted for by the CBN’’.

According to the petitioner, the CBN and Federal Inland Revenue Service had failed to appear before members of the committee to defend their submissions upon realising that their secret had been unveiled.

“We discovered that something was going wrong and we approached the CBN to take actions to remedy those infractions but it remained adamant probably that is how they benefit from the system.

“They have engaged in forgery and when in 2017 they were asked to produce the documents they made available to the Federal Government since 2006, they started manipulating them with computers.

“We discovered that the CBN adds naira and dollar into one column to arrive at a total.

“Even to the extent of taking money outside an account to a secret account and returning same at the end of the month after earning secret interests,” Uzonwani said.

While ruling on the petition, Nkem-Abonta (PDP-Abia) expressed displeasure over the failure of the CBN to appear before the committee to clear issues relating to the alleged infractions.

He said: “because the CBN, FIRS and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) have repeatedly failed to appear, the committee will be left with nothing than to deem it fit to work with materials before it.

“We will conduct a public hearing on the matter and we will compel them to appear because what we are trying to do is to have a situation where all the loopholes for leakages are blocked.”