The Executive Secretary of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Ogbonnaya Orji, has disclosed that Nigeria lost the sum of N16.25tn was lost to unabated crude oil theft.
According to The PUNCH, this was disclosed by Orji, while handing over the report on the $74.386bn spent on fuel subsidies by successive governments since 2011 to the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts on Tuesday.
The NEITI revealed that it uncovered more than $8.3 billion in unremitted revenue from both privately-owned oil companies and federal government-owned agencies.
These funds were not deposited into the Federation Account, which goes against existing financial regulations.
In response, Orji stated that the agency is actively collaborating with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission, and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit to recover these funds and ensure they are returned to the Federation Account.
He said, “I have here, for instance, revenues we have earned from oil and gas since 1999. We also have here all the subsidy payments made. Since 2005 when it became a scandal, we began to collect the data. We began to ask questions on subsidy and as of 2021, the country had paid $74.386bn in subsidy.
“And we have a breakdown of what was paid each year. We have also got a conversion of what that can possibly translate to.”
